| Delivery scooters are parked outside of Woowa Brother's local service branch in Seoul, on March 30. Korea times file |
By Kim Jae-heun
Baedal Minjok, the country's No.1 food delivery service, operated by Woowa Brothers, has recently made moves to imitate Coupang Eats' service system and price policies.
“Delivering one order at a time” is the motto that Coupang Eats' first adopted when it went to market. The phrase took a key role in placing Coupang's food delivery player in the third position behind Baedal Minjok and Yogiyo, within a year of commencing operations.
Coupang Eats is still far from catching up with Baedal Minjok, with its market share being 44.5 percent points behind the No.1 player. Baedal Minjok and Coupang Eats hold 59.7 percent and 15.2 percent of the market share, respectively.
Coupang Eats' has grown quickly to grab nearly 10 percent of the market share in just half a year.
Coupang Eats' market share in Songpa and Gangnam areas is said to have surpassed that of Baedal Minjok. The two districts are considered important markets for food delivery players, as they are where the most orders in the country are placed. They are also the areas where the two food delivery platforms test their new marketing strategies.
As part of its countermeasures to shake off Coupang Eats, Baedal Minjok also started its own “one delivery at a time” service, called Baemin1, last week, in Songpa district. Soon, Baedal Minjok will expand this service across the capital city of Seoul, and then to the whole country.
Baedal Minjok used to carry a minimum of two to five orders at a time. But food deliveries often arrived cold, and sometimes to the wrong address.
Baedal Minjok's moves are drawing criticism from the market and public because they believe that copying the competitor's marketing strategy will not result in success.
The adjusted delivery system is not the only Coupang Eats' idea that Baedal Minjok has parroted. It also adopted the same commission policy and similar promotional events. Just like Coupang, Baedal Minjok hires both full-time and part-time delivery workers to fulfill its operational needs.
Baedal Minjok is becoming so much like Coupang Eats that customers can predict its future strategies through Coupang's new services.
It is common for food delivery players to copy each other's strategies in small local markets because they share the same engineer and program developer pools.
However, Baedal Minjok became successful on the back of its innovative ideas, and lacking a new strategy while continuing to mimic others will eventually dethrone it from the market's top position.