The most frequently visited food delivery apps in South Korea are Baedal Minjok, Yogiyo, and Burger King, data showed Tuesday.

According to data release by local app data analysis firm Incross, Baedal Minjok, the country’s leading food delivery app managed by Woowa Brothers, a food-delivery startup, had the highest app and web traffic with 6.39 million visitors in April. The ranking was followed by another indigenous food delivery app Yogiyo with 3.68 million, while fast food brands Burger King and Lotteria ranked third and fourth with 1.23 million and 630,000 user traffic, respectively, and local food delivery app Baedaltong came in fifth.

It is notable that Burger King and Lotteria have joined the country’s top five most popular food delivery app list even though they are just fast food franchise brands that offer their customers delivery services. Such brand apps can generate more stable revenue than do pure food delivery app peers thanks to steady traffic growth, market analysts said.

Lotteria, a home-grown fast food brand, showed the highest growth in traffic in the past year, with the number of people visiting the brand’s app surging 168 percent in April from a year ago. Burger King also saw a 49.5 percent increase in its app and web traffic during the same period, higher than Baedal Minjok with 35.3 percent.

The growth in traffic has also contributed to a jump in revenue. According to the companies, 27.9 percent of total sales raised by Lotteria in April were from its delivery services in April versus 25 percent in whole 2018. Delivery accounted for only 14.5 percent of total sales in 2014, 15.7 percent in 2015, 17.3 percent in 2016, and 20.2 percent in 2017. Industry watchers expected more than one third of Lotteria sales to come from delivery in the future.

To meet the growing demand for delivery food, these fast food companies are actively expanding their delivery services.

Burger King has expanded its 24-hour delivery service to other parts of Seoul, which previously was restricted to Gangnam in southern Seoul. The move is in contrary to the general trend in the country’s franchise business sector in which many restaurant chains have been forced to close down their 24-hour services due to rising cost burden including minimum wage hikes.

Encouraged by the success of Burger King and Lotteria, Mom’s Touch, a local chicken burger chain, has been aggressively seeking to expand delivery service. The brand said that 40 percent of Mom’s Touch franchise stores offered delivery service through food delivery apps in the second half of last year, but the figure touched 70 percent this year.

Competition in the already crowded Korea’s food delivery market – worth 20 trillion won – is expected to further heat up as the country’s e-commerce leader Coupang and portal giant Naver have recently decided to join the race.

By Oh Dae-seok and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]