What questions do you have about food delivery in Southeast Asia in 2022?

In January this year, we published our second annual installment of Food delivery in Southeast Asia report. 

We mapped out the dynamics across different countries in the region, volume and market share of key players in each country, strategies of these players, the groceries foray etc. 

In the conclusion of the report, we indicated that, as we were entering 2022, Grab was leading in market share, DeliveryHero was rationalizing its global portfolio, GoJek was preparing to list (under GoTo), and ShopeeFood was ramping up partially to compensate slow down of ecommerce growth. 

Most of these movements persisted, amid much greater market turbulence in 2022. As of yesterday (17 October), DeliveryHero share price was down 65%, Sea Group 76%, Grab 66%, and Deliveroo 59% ytd (year to date). Share prices of GoTo, which is listed in Jakarta with greater shields to global turbulence, also went down by 45% ytd. 

Has the thesis for food delivery changed? We mentioned in the Jan 2022 report that “While the capital market sentiments should greatly impact players’ strategies, especially over the short term, the fundamentals of volume, density and operational efficiency to win the game do not change; to achieve that, players will also need to adapt to the fact that Southeast Asia’s key cities are really myriads of different demographics and market segments.”

As the end of 2022 approaches, we are starting to prepare for the new (3rd) edition of the Food Delivery in Southeast Asia report, which we expect to publish in January 2023. 

Many of you asked our methodology to derive market volume/share. The answer is simple (the work is not): we leveraged our community to interview a lot of people in the ecosystem in each market. The data was constructed, and calibrated in iterations before being finalized. 

This year, as most companies in the sector are now public, we do have more data points to validate what we have learnt on the ground (and we are glad numbers in our previous reports withstood this backtesting pretty well). 

Last year, we also held a briefing about the report, and answered many questions you had. 

This year, we would like to make the creation process a bit more interactive. 

Please do let us know what questions you have about the food delivery market in Southeast Asia – we will try our best to answer those in the upcoming report.

You can email your questions to [email protected]. We also welcome perspectives, reflections  and debate about the subject. 

Look forward to the discussion! 

P.S. Our affiliate Momentum Academy, which leverages the MW community and insights to develop real, immersive learning experiences for corporations and individuals, has conducted a number of private briefings and case studies on Food Delivery, platform strategies and case studies on key companies (Meituan, Grab, Sea) for our community. If you would like to learn more about these engagements, you are welcome to drop a note to my colleagues, [email protected] or [email protected]