Food Delivery in Southeast Asia: What happened in 2022?

Momentum Works’s third annual “Food Delivery Platforms in Southeast Asia” report is released today, answering key questions from investors and stakeholders on the macro landscape, players, and challenges during the post-pandemic period.

After two years of significant growth, combined GMV of food delivery platforms in Southeast Asia grew at a more modest 5% in 2022, to US$16.3 billion. 

The report is complimentary – you can download your copy here.

What happened in 2022? 

Food delivery platforms faced significant headwinds, including the post-covid reopening (return of offline dining, reduction of govt subsidies for deliveries etc.) as well as the difficult capital environment for tech sectors across the globe.

In all the six major countries in the region, governments have loosened (or completely removed) restrictions, and welcomed tourists and other foreign visitors. In Singapore, where  more than 300,000 fans attended the F1 night race in September, life  felt back to normal again from the pandemic. 

In the report, we have identified three macro trends concerning food delivery ecosystem in the region: 

1. Returning of dine-in: As pandemic restrictions were lifted, consumers are returning to the F&B establishments offline. As a result, platforms, merchants and the whole ecosystem are making adjustments to their operations, marketing and product offerings to cater to this shift.  

2. Fragmented digitisation of F&B: Pandemic has accelerated the development of digital solutions, which also creates fragmented digitalization for the food services industry. It is very common to see a merchant using separate systems for POS, menu ordering, payment, CRM/loyalty, marketing, operations management, supplies, and interfacing with delivery platforms. .

In China, we see that the leading food delivery platform, Meituan, takes the initiative to consolidate POS, menu ordering, payment, etc in a single system. Platforms in Southeast Asia are moving towards the same strategy – will we see a consolidation here?  

3. Platforms entering food discovery: With offline coming back, people are looking for trustworthy recommendations for where to eat. Delivery platforms naturally want to tap into discovery to capture customers and increase stickiness (without having to constantly spend on marketing to get transactions). Consumers have also been using social platforms such as TikTok and Xiaohongshu for discovery – but there is no equivalent of China’s Dianping at a regional level in Southeast Asia.    

More insights

The Food Delivery Platforms in Southeast Asia report is free – and you can obtain your copy here. 

You can also join our report briefing on 18 January (Wednesday) at 3-4pm Singapore time. Register for your spot here!