China’s food delivery market grew 23% in 2017

Beijing. January 22. Silkroadnews - The volume of the food delivery market in China grew 23% in 2017, Xinhua reports.
“China’s food delivery market registered fast growth last year as young Chinese are increasingly choosing to order food online,” the report said.
According to a report by Meituan Waimai, a major food delivery company, in 2017, the online food delivery market reached 204.6 billion yuan (about $31.9 billion), up 23% from a year earlier.
Jiang Junxian, director of the China Culinary Association, suggests the young people were among the most active customers.
While the online food delivery market is growing rapidly, there is still room for growth in business, as food delivery is a relatively small part of the catering industry, Jiang believes.
The catering market in the country flourished in 2017 with its total revenue exceeding 3.96 trillion yuan, up 10.7% compared to a year ago.
According to Yang Wenjie from Meituan Waimai, in small cities the food delivery market developed faster than in major cities.
The fast-growing online food delivery market was also closely related to mobile payments popularity - about 60% of Chinese paid for the delivery of food using their smartphones.