When Beijing was blanketed by heavy smog, three motorcycles passed by a crossroads within 30 seconds. All of them were carrying a big box, stuffed with food and bearing the name of one of China's three largest food-ordering platforms.
The motorcyclists were couriers from Ele.me, a six-year-old startup, Groupon-like Meituan.comand, Baidu Waimai, a food-ordering service launched by search engine giant Baidu Inc.
他們在繁忙的車流中穿梭,配送消費者在線訂購的晚餐。
They were winding through busy traffic to deliver dinners that consumers had ordered online.
The days-long smog is stoking demand for a business that is booming in China. Thanks to the proliferation of smartphones in the world's second-largest economy, a growing number of consumers are turning to mobile apps for catering services.
In the second quarter, online-to-offline, or O2O, catering industry transactions hit 8.2 billionyuan ($1.3 billion), up by 89 percent from last quarter, according to Beijing-based Internet consultancy Analysys International.
Although online food ordering only accounts for a small proportion of the catering industry, research company iResearch Consulting Group says its market volume is expected to hit 40 billion yuan in 2017, as more consumers develop the habit of booking meals online.
“餓了么”的共同創始人和首席運營官康佳表示,該平臺正在擴大一天5個高峰段的食品送貨服務。
Kang Jia, co-founder and chief operating officer of ele.me, saying that the platform is expanding its food delivery services to five peak-time phases in one day.
Unlike our peers which only focus on the regular three meals, we are adding desserts and snacks in the afternoon since most white-collar workers tend to have a tea break, Kang said. "Now around 19 percent of orders are for afternoon services."
The company is also rolling out special snacks to meet people's growing appetite late at night. "This is the most promising niche because it covers a long time range which starts from 8 pm to maybe 2 am the next day," Kang added.