Online food delivery services bloom in China

On Beijings smoggy days， many try to avoid going outside， but Wang Ji is rushing through the streets to deliver food to the citys shut-ins.

Wang is a “Baidu Knight，” the nickname for delivery men from Chinese search giant Baidus take-out service. Tens of thousands of them， dressed in red jackets， ride their motorcycles， shuttling from restaurants to offices and homes in more than 100 Chinese cities every day.

The quantity of food delivered by these “knights”each day amounts to some 480 tonnes of grains， 400 tonnes of vegetables and 640 heads of cattle. Each delivery man travels about 14，000 kilometers per year on average， about the distance from Shanghai to New York.

Market researcher EnfoDesk said Chinas Internetbased restaurant delivery services fulfilled 176 million orders in the first quarter of 2015， up by over 340 percent year on year.

“Its a toilsome job. You need to race against time to deliver food as quickly as possible so you can get more orders， and sometimes the work can be very challenging，”said the 21-year-old， who left his hometown in Shandong Province five months ago to become a delivery man in Beijing.

“Working late at night can be scary at times. Once I received a midnight order，” he said. “While I was walking toward the end of the corridor， a man suddenly appeared by my side， which freaked me out. Later， I realized it was myself in a mirror.”

“I also have a frequent customer who lives on the 16th floor. He likes ordering late-night snacks， but the elevator in his building stops working at night，” he said. “I have to climb the stairs every time， but he is so considerate that he walks downstairs and meets me half-way.”

According to Baidu， 11 percent of orders its service received in 2015 were placed after 7 pm， and 3 percent were placed after 9 pm. Most of the late-night orders were in big cities such as Beijing， Shanghai and Guangzhou.

“Despite the hardships， it can also be fun，” Wang said. A keen observer， Wang has noted some trends.” Hongshaorou （Braised pork） is the most-loved dish. People in the IT industry favor rice noodles with hot and sour bamboo shoots， and workers in advertising firms prefer rice with fat beef slices. Many women hate coriander.”

It is also a well-paid job， Wang added. He delivers around 1，000 orders and makes more than 9，000 yuan（US$1，386） per month， compared to the average monthly wage of 6，463 yuan for Beijing in 2014.

The efficient service is made possible by Baidus smart dispatching system， which can predict the delivery time of each order according to past records and work out the best routes for delivery staff. The system also allocates orders according to the delivery mens locations and their past performance.

Founded in May 2014， Baidus restaurant delivery service， waimai.baidu.com， has developed into a leading Internet take-out delivery platform with over 30 million registered users.

Statistics published by the Data Center of China Internet （DCCI） in November showed waimai.baidu.com took 32 percent of Chinas white-collar worker market， followed by waimai.meituan.com and Ele.me， accounting for 31.2 and 29.8 percent respectively.

China has witnessed explosive growth in Internet-based food ordering and delivery services during the past two years. Waimai.meituan. com， launched at the end of 2013， now covers some 250 cities， while ele.me， founded in 2009， has seen its market expand from a dozen cities to about 250 since early 2014.

Wang Huiwen， vice president of waimai.meituan.com， said the strong momentum of Chinas on- line take-out delivery services has overshadowed that of foreign counterparts. He attributed the rapid expansion to Chinas high population density， low labor costs and wide variety of restaurant choices.

In recent years，online meal ordering is growing popular with the boom of internet sharing economy. With a click on cell phone users can get their take-out food waiting outside the door. During meal time， delivery guys with their eye catching brands of each online ordering brand on their delivery car driving in road at lightning speed. This has become scenery in many citiesstreets.

As the data shows， until June this year， online take-out food users have reached 150 million， growing at 31.8% in half a year， which tops the personal internet app ranking list in the first six months this year. The number of users ordering take-out food online on their cell phones grows more obviously. In the past six months this year， it grows at 40.5%， which means a user scale of 146 million.

However， there are still problems and risks hidden behind the boom. Food sellers bear different levels of quality. Many registered addresses showed online are fake addresses. Some sellers sell food out of their operation limit.Food photos are faked and hygiene status is substandard. There are many reasons behind the mess. The platform surveillance system has its own vulnerability. Under fierce competition， many sellers are money-oriented. Although it seems all food served online are quite fresh and clean， its hard to ensure what customers eat is truly clean. The invisible restaurants online shall be under sufficient supervision， which has become a challenge for relevant agencies.