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本人特长February 2021
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T’S cold and you don’t want to eat outside, or maybe you hate to stand in long queues at a restaurant waiting to be ated. The solution to your discomfort couldn’t be easier. Pick up your smartphone and order a takeout meal.
Whether you’re craving for a cup of steaming cof-fee or a slice of creamy cake, food delivery apps can
By staff reporter DANG XIAOFEI
Meals at Fingertips:
Takeout Apps in China
order a rapid delivery scooter to zip over to your door within 30 minutes.
Thanks to the development of the Internet, arti-ficial intelligence, big data, and other technologies, food
delivery rvices have become deeply integrated into the daily lives of Chine people, enabling them to enjoy all kinds of conveniences by just a few taps on a phone screen.
Convenient Way of Life
Bai Lin, a white-collar worker in the financial ctor in Beijing’s CBD, is so immerd in work
every day that it is a luxury for him to go to a nearby restaurant for a sit-down lunch. So for Bai, ordering a takeout meal is a lifesaver. Every day at noon, he or-ders his favorite dishes on food delivery apps, which arrive warm by 12:30. For Bai this is an esntial time saver.
In China, the number of people ordering takeout food has been increasing year-by-year owing to its convenience. According to iRearch, by the end of 2019, of the 900 million Internet urs in China, there
Smart phone apps have become a daily necessity for Chine urbanites. Data show that by the end of 2019, half of the 900 million Internet urs in China had ordered takeouts through
Meituan takeout, , and other takeout apps.
were about 460 million ordering takeouts, up 12.7 percent year-on-year. The size of China’s catering takeout rvice industry reached RMB 653.6 billion in 2019, up 39.3 percent from 2018.
The spread of takeout rvices in China has accel-erated after the COVID-19 outbreak. During the pan-demic, hankering after popular restaurants’ signature dishes, Wang Fang in Xicheng District, Beijing, cho to order online and eat at home. Wang is one of mil-lions who changed their dining out habits becau of safety considerations.
During the third quarter of 2020, Meituan, a catering giant, saw its takeout transaction volume reach RMB 152.2 billion, a year-on-year growth of 36 percent. The number of daily takeout transactions on average was 34.9 million, up 30.1 percent year-on-year. The number of urs also reached a new high this quarter.
Wang always clicks the “no contact delivery” button in her takeout order. In this way, the de-
livery person only needs to leave the food at the
place designated by her, avoiding any direct hu-
man contact, which minimizes the risk of con-
tracting the virus. “The attached card also bears
the name of the delivery person and their temper-
ature that day. In addition, there are a few antip-
tic wipes included with the delivery, which makes
自助烧烤me feel safe,” said Wang.
The convenience of food delivery rvices is also豆角土豆
reflected in the details. Now, food delivery platforms
比熊幼犬have launched t meals for one person, promoting
small and half portions to both lower the price and
avoid food wastage. “I no longer have to worry about
wasting food and I can also order more signature
dishes now,” said Du Xingyu, who lives alone.
Nowadays, not only meals, but also fruits, veg-
延续的近义词
etables, flowers, medicine, and even daily necessities
can all be bought on takeout apps. Consumption
demands are therefore being satisfied across a range
of goods.
The Chine
northeastern city
of Shenyang coope-
rates with Alibaba’s
lifestyle app Koubei
in launching a
campaign named
“Renewal of Urban
Life” on April 18,
2020. During the
campaign, many
delivery scooters
paraded through the
streets to encou-
rage the recovery
of the local catering
ctor.
speCial reporT
30CHINA TODAY
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美丽乡村建设项目
February 2021
How to provide urs with the best rvice experi-ence is always the first thing to think about. Former-ly, takeout orders were distributed to delivery staff by restaurants through the platform, but now, with technological innovations, a smart system within the platform will do the job.
The ctor’s three titans, Meituan takeout, , and Baidu takeout, have all developed their own order distribution systems. The systems automati-cally analyze the data of each order and plan the fast-est route for delivery staff. In times of heavy rain or snow, they will also allocate more time to ensure safe delivery. ’s smart order distribution system covers over 2,000 cities and counties throughout the country, with the average delivery time being short-ened to 28 minutes per single order.
In addition to its smart order distribution system, Meituan takeaway has also launched a new intel-ligent equipment system with intelligent electric
vehicles, intelligent safety hel-mets, smart food boxes, voice assistants, and indoor position-ing ba stations. The five
new devices empower delivery staff to be more efficient after
they log into their version of the
Meituan app. It’s estimated that
植树日
during the whole food delivery process, from food preparation
to delivery, nearly 80 percent of
phone operations are simplified and the speed of receiving orders
has incread by 50 percent.
In addition, with help of big data technology, takeout platforms are able to create virtual portraits of their diners, which includes dish preferences, prices, rvices, etc. Such information is very uful for catering business to develop accurate market-ing strategies and nd tailor-made notices, as a way of improving ur experience.
Self-driving has also become another major direc-tion. As early as 2016, Meituan has been exploring robot-aided delivery. Wang Xing, founder and CEO of Meituan, said, “We have completed multiple R&D iterations in the field of unmanned vehicles and drones, and have applied for more than 60 technol-ogy patents.” In his view, the core of the booming takeout economy lies in technology-driven productivity. C
The food and beverage industry was hit hard
during the pandemic, while the takeout industry took the
opportunity to flourish.Channeling Customers to Offline Restaurants
For the majority of catering business, delivery platforms help them expand new sources of income effectively.
wps表格求和
Yunhaiyao, a restaurant of south Yunnan ethnic cuisine with over 100 stores across China, t up their takeout apps in 2018. Since then, its Ganjiakou restaurant in Beijing alone handles over 2,000 take-aways each month. Pei Xiaohui, the manager, said, “Our Ganjiakou restaurant has cooperated with many delivery platforms, and the takeout business accounts for one-third of our total revenue. D
uring the pan-demic, that proportion even reached 50 percent.”Ordering takeout food online has also channeled more customers to offline restaurants. Pei said that 70 percent of his customers choo to eat in their physical restaurant.
“I got to know Yunhaiyao from the delivery plat-form, but when I went to the brick-and-mortar restaurant, I liked its dining environment and r-vice better [than the takeout delivery]. I can eat the freshly cooked hot dishes right away, and better communicate with my friends face to face,” said Wu Xiaolong, a diner at Yunhaiyao.
“Now we are also able to get direct feedback from customers through their online reviews. It not only helps us to improve our dishes and rvices, but also helps us to estimate how much food we should prepare so as to reduce waste,” said Pei.
The food and beverage industry was hit hard during the pandemic, while the takeout industry took the opportunity to flourish. 2020 Q3 Enterpri Development Big Data Report shows that during the first quarter of 2020, 8,023 new registra-tions related to takeout catering were recorded, with year-on-year growth of 120.8 percent; 26,800 in the cond quarter, up 311.9 percent year-on-year; 49,000 in the third quarter, up 514.8 percent year-on-year. At prent, there are 118,000 takeout catering busi-ness in China, of which the lf-employed account for 71.6 percent.
Information T echnology Drives Development
Although the takeout business may em labor-intensive, it’s actually more technology-intensive. Its development relies on artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things, and other high tech.
