□ It is not local business that attracts Internet giants, but the needs of localized B-end companies. It is expected that the goal of most platform companies this year is to gain more B-end users.

　　□ In a fully competitive market, consumers get better services, merchants get more business, Internet giants find new business growth points, and finally form a virtuous circle of win-win for all parties.

　　Recently, Internet companies have invariably focused on the food delivery business.

Following Douyin, WeChat, which has 1.2 billion users, has also quietly started internal testing of its "takeaway" service in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which has aroused market attention.

　　In this regard, a relevant person from Tencent said that WeChat is not going to end up doing food delivery, but an internal test of an interface capability, so that merchants that already have the ability to provide food delivery services can access it, rather than doing it themselves.

WeChat stated that the "store delivery" service aims to help consumers find high-quality small programs that provide fast delivery services nearby. The specific service and delivery performance are all undertaken by the merchant's small program. WeChat does not have a delivery system, which is different from having hundreds of There is an essential difference between Wanqiqi’s Meituan Waimai and Ele.me.

　　Let's take a look at Douyin again.

Takeaway is actually a business that Douyin has been testing the waters for the past three years.

Douyin denied the previous news that "Tiktok will launch a national takeaway service on March 1".

The relevant person in charge of Douyin’s life service said that the “group purchase delivery” project is still being piloted in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu, and merchants in the three places have recently opened up self-service settlement.

In the future, depending on the pilot situation, consideration will be given to gradually expanding the pilot cities. There is currently no specific timetable.

According to people familiar with the matter, the difference between group-buying delivery and take-out in the strict sense is that users cannot order freely, but group-buying packages can be delivered to home.

　　According to data from the State Information Center, the scale of China's online food delivery market will reach 1 trillion yuan in 2021, and the combined market share of Meituan and Ele.me will exceed 90%.

According to iResearch data, the scale of China's local life service market in 2020 will be 19.5 trillion yuan, and this figure will grow to 35.3 trillion yuan by 2025.

The online penetration rate of local life services will also increase from 24.3% in 2020 to 30.8% in 2025.

From food delivery services to local life services, there is still a huge market size from 1 trillion yuan to tens of trillion yuan. How can Internet companies not be tempted?

　　"In the future, local life will return to the 'Warring States Era', and the local life platform may usher in a shift and upgrade. In addition to catering express delivery, the mini program will also participate in other aspects of local life, such as housekeeping, auto repair, and supermarket lines. Online and offline models, accommodation, travel, fresh food and other fields. Participating companies will break their minds and tap the potential of the local life track.” said Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of Zhejiang University International Business School .

　　From a practical point of view, it has gradually become a trend for some leading brands to carry out self-operated food delivery through small programs.

According to the 2023 WeChat open class, nearly 60% of the top 100 catering merchants in the country have opened mini-program takeaways, including top brands such as HEYTEA, Ruixing, and Starbucks.

This WeChat internal test can directly provide a centralized display traffic entrance, eliminating the need for consumers to actively search, and helping merchants to obtain more public domain traffic.

　　In Pan Helin's view, it is not the local business that attracts Internet giants, but the needs of localized B-end companies. It is expected that the goal of most platform companies this year is to acquire more B-end users.

"For example, a small restaurant will have digital needs, including supply chain digitalization, digital ordering, etc., and will also expand its business through the takeaway platform. Tencent's idea is to first obtain these B-end customers through the platform business, and then to these catering companies. The extension of the middle and back office, such as supply chain, management, and payment digitization. Therefore, the attractiveness of the local business is that it has brought more B-end customers to Tencent.”

　　In addition, Douyin and Tencent may have slightly different goals.

Pan Helin said that Tencent has support capabilities in the middle and back offices of enterprises, such as corporate WeChat and video conferencing, and can penetrate into the middle and back offices of enterprises.

The goal of Douyin is actually to increase the amount of advertising in the local business and attract B-end enterprises to settle in Douyin. On the one hand, it will increase the categories of Douyin e-commerce platform, and on the other hand, it will increase the exposure of content on the Douyin platform.

　　Can WeChat and Douyin quickly stir up the spring water in the food delivery market?

"It is difficult to occupy a place in the short term, because the market structure has been formed and consumer habits have been formed." Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangoal Institution, said that the two platforms still have problems in terms of building their own performance systems and quality control of third-party performance systems. Certain difficulty.

　　It is foreseeable that the stickiness of consumers on the food delivery platform is not high. From the perspective of consumers, the food delivery war can win the wool, and whichever platform is cheap will go there.

Once the subsidy stops, consumers will compare the delivery timeliness of the platform, after-sales service, and whether there are still discounts for long-term use, so as to choose the optimal platform.

For merchants, in addition to multiple platforms and multiple traffic, they must also consider comprehensive costs such as commissions, delivery service fees, and digital operations to calculate comprehensive income.

　　In short, most consumers and businesses are happy to see more Internet companies joining the competition. In a fully competitive market, consumers will get better services, businesses will get more business, and companies will find new business growth points, eventually forming a multi-party shared future. A virtuous cycle of winning.

(Li Fang, reporter from China Economic Net, Economic Daily)