After the e-commerce boom, the all-in-on super app has become the holy grail of huge technology companies, especially in Asia. Imagine ordering food delivery, hailing a ride, booking a local service, chatting with your friends…
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During the pandemic, most of the F&B merchants have to rely on food delivery platforms to continue running their business.
It is also during this period when food delivery platforms are mushrooming, similar to what we have witnessed during the Groupon clones and online shopping marketplaces in the past.
Interestingly in Q3 2021 alone, airasia has acquired DeliverEat as part of its super app ambition, and ShopeeFood has just been launched in Klang Valley.
At the time of writing, there are close to 20 food delivery marketplaces serving Malaysia’s market, by both the regional and local players.
Even though the food delivery trend is booming at the moment, the market is too saturated now and we expect to see not more than 5 major players in the near future.
Which food delivery platforms are the best for F&B merchants in Malaysia?
Besides the big two – GrabFood and Foodpanda, what are the other food delivery marketplaces for F&B businesses to explore?
We are talking about food delivery marketplaces here (with buyers and sellers), not own-curated food delivery like Pop Meals, not order management system providers like Oddle, not on-demand delivery like Lalamove.
While it makes sense for big F&B brands like McDonald’s, KFC, Domino’s to develop and market their own online food delivery services, the barrier is lower for smaller F&B merchants to tag along with the popular online food delivery marketplaces.
In general, the food delivery services are offered by three types of players, namely super apps, pure food (and grocery) delivery platforms, and internet technology companies.
It is best for F&B businesses to consider the factors below before joining any food delivery marketplaces:
- How big is their customers base and what are their demographics like?
- How much do they charge in terms of service or commission fees?
- Where are the serviced locations and delivery distance?
- Do they have in-house logistics (riders) or rely on third-party (higher delivery fees)?
While many F&B merchants are burdened by the high commission fees charged by the food delivery platforms, the number of active customers is an important aspect to consider.
No point in joining a food delivery marketplace with 5% service fees but you can’t get any business from there, right?
Since the actual number of customers is undisclosed, we can use the number of app installs to benchmark and rank the popularity of food delivery marketplaces.
This is also because food delivery is predominantly used on a mobile app. Of course, it will be more accurate to use the daily or monthly active users to measure how popular the apps are.
Bear in mind too that app installs total by players like Grab and Foodpanda are contributed by multiple markets, and users who install Shopee are currently using it for online shopping.
Nevertheless, it is reasonable to rank the food delivery platforms by app installs (Google Play only) and benchmark how big their customer base is.
| Brand | Type | App Installs | Web Order | Coverage | Distance | Own Logistics | Demographics | Service Fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GrabFood | Super app | 100,000,000 | Yes | Major cities nationwide | 10km | Yes | All | Up to 30% |
| Foodpanda | Food & grocery delivery | 50,000,000 | Yes | Major cities nationwide | Depends on restaurants | Yes | All | 25-35% |
| ShopeeFood | Super app | 10,000,000 | Yes | Klang Valley | N/A | Yes | All | 20% |
| AirAsia Food | Super app | 10,000,000 | Yes | Klang Valley, Penang, Ipoh | 60km | Yes | All | 15% |
| EASI (Hungry) | Food & grocery delivery | 500,000 | No | Selected cities | N/A | Yes | Chinese | N/A |
| Bungkusit | Food & grocery delivery | 500,000 | No | KV, PG, Terengganu, Ipoh, Johor | N/A | Yes | Malay | 20% |
| DeliverEat | Food delivery | 100,000 | Yes | Penang, Klang Valley | 7km | Yes | All | 30% |
| LOLOL | Food & grocery delivery | 100,000 | Yes | Klang Valley, Melaka, Johor | 40km | Yes | Chinese | 3% |
| GemSpot | Table booking & food delivery | 100,000 | No | Klang Valley | 40km | Partner | All | 20% |
| Beep Delivery | Food delivery | 50,000 | Yes | Klang Valley, Penang, Johor | 20km | Hybrid | All | Up to 20% |
| Tapau | Food delivery | 50,000 | Yes | Northern Region, etc | N/A | Yes | Malay | N/A |
| OdaMakan | Food delivery | 50,000 | Yes | Kelantan & other selected cities | 10km | Yes | Malay | 20% |
Comparison of food delivery platforms in Malaysia (click to enlarge)
As you can see from the table above, here are the top 12 food delivery marketplaces in Malaysia for F&B merchants to compare and decide which one is the best for your business.
- GrabFood
- Foodpanda
- ShopeeFood
- airasia food
- EASI (Hungry)
- Bungkusit
- DeliverEat
- LOLOL
- GemSpot
- Beep Delivery
- Tapau
- OdaMakan
#1. GrabFood
#2. Foodpanda
#3. ShopeeFood
#4. airasia food
#5. EASI (previously known as Hungry)
#6. Bungkusit
#7. DeliverEat (acquired by airasia)
#8. LOLOL
#9. GemSpot
#10. Beep by StoreHub
#11. TapauFood
#12. OdaMakan
Other Contenders
While RunningMan seems to be temporarily unavailable at the time of writing, there are also other food delivery platforms with 10K or lesser app installs on Google Play:
- Quicksent
- Lapar
- easyeats
- Quik
If you are a F&B merchant, which one is your preferred platform? How is your experience partnering with food delivery platforms? Feel free to share in the comment box below.
Note: The data in this article is sourced and updated in September 2021.
