It can be said as the last year was the first year of the true delivery services in Japan.
This year is a period of further development, and it will be interesting to see how it will grow as an industry in the Japanese market, where the main target population of 20s and 30s people is smaller than in other countries.

Uber Eats, which has the largest market share at the moment, launched its service in Toronto, Canada in December 2015 and started its business in Japan in September 2016. As of May 2021, the company provides services in 35 prefectures in addition to its expansion in major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka, it has been rapidly expanding the services in regional cities since last year. In addition to an existing large delivery platform DEMAEKAN, a number of other platforms such as DiDI and menu have joined the race, and a fierce battle for services has begun.

In the food tech industry, which is said to be a 700 trillion-yen business worldwide, more unimaginable money is being invested in new platform providers. In the absence of a perfectly profitable mega-corporation yet, have you noticed something?

One of them is that in Japan, a backward delivery country, there is still large room for growth due to the synergy advantages among delivery partners, merchants, and customers. Furthermore, the fact that delivery partners can choose the delivery destination is also a very interesting business model, which is not easy to achieve in the delivery service industry. Meanwhile, with stores strengthening their own deliveries, Uber Eats has set its delivery fee in the 10% range, which also means that a major change is coming.

In the history of the evolution of IT in Japan, in the early 2000s, when content delivery on cell phones became popular, which had grown through content provision services with unique specifications, the commission paid by content providers to communication carriers was 9-11%. The current delivery industry is similar to the situation back then, and there are many people who believe that the delivery transformation offers equal opportunities for content providers.

Overseas chains such as Panda Express, a family restaurant serving American-style Chinese foods, are making use of the strengths of their own history and content to experience trials and errors not only in Japan but also in other countries. In Japan,”Ganso Kanazawa Champion Curry Delivery” which is the delivery department of “Champion Curry”(Nonoichi city) known as Kanazawa's local gourmet food, recently achieved the opening of 100 stores in May 2021. The home delivery business, which the company started in March this year, was originally planned to have 100 stores by this summer, but the target has been achieved quite early and ahead of schedule.

This is supported by the teamwork among food content providers, online marketing and food tech experts. For example, an online marketing company (in charge of KPI measurement, analysis, and planning) finds out the demand for a large size dish is actually ordered by women customers, which could not be found at an eat-in restaurant. This kind of various and valuable information is quickly taken by food content and food tech companies for their advantages.

Franchise Japan also has engaged in consulting several projects. For example, incorporating a new type of business or service getting from ghost license or virtual license practices into eat-in restaurants. Specifically, a new type of store operation that is started with delivery in a specific region. After marketing products and acquiring customers through the delivery service then launching actual eat-in restaurants. It might be said that the difficult time of COVID-19 has become a trigger for new business.