[Consumerwide - HueSoung Jun Reporter / Yohan Bok Reporter]  Delivery apps have become a daily necessity in Korea. Referring to ConsumerInsight, four out of five consumers have experienced one of the major delivery apps, which are Baemin, Yogiyo, and Couplangeats. On average, 1.1 customers order food through the delivery app once a week, and three out of ten use the app once a week. Here, Yogiyo and Coupangeats are having fierce competition to take over the second. But it seems that Coupangeats is constantly winning by satisfying customers with their competitive services.

According to Mobileindex of Bigdata Igaworks, the MAU of three major delivery apps recorded 33,074,869 in February, which is a 3.4% increase from the same month last year.

In February, the MAU of each business recorded Baemin (1st) at 21,934,983, which is a 0.2% increase from the same month last year; Yogiyo (2nd) at 6,027,043, which is a 16.6% decrease; and Coupangeats (3rd) at 5,742,933, which is a 64.7% increase. Concerning the trend, it seems to be that Coupangeats will take the 2nd soon.

Referring to ConsumerInsight, the user records of each delivery app are Baemin 86% (multiple answer question), Yogiyo 47%, and Coupangeats 28% (each ranking 1, 2, and 3) during three months. In particular, Coupangeats took the top spot by marking 60 out of 100 in four categories. The total assessment categories were promotion, event (Eats got the max), customer service, delivery quality, easy UI, and number of delivery store members. Baemin and Yogiyo got 48 each. ConsumerInsight announced the delivery app user status and satisfaction research in September 2023 based on data from 3,372 smartphone delivery app users over 14 years old.

Regarding the frequency rate (single answer question), the user rate of Baemin approached 65%, which was way beyond the records of Yogiyo (20%) and Coupangeats (11%). This can be calculated as follows: Eight out of ten users used Baemin more than once in three months, and two out of three used Baemin primarily. In the 2nd and 3rd app competitions, Yogiyo took over Coupangeats in user rate.

The competition between Yogiyo and Coupangeats began last year, as each business was consistently bringing out new deals for customers. In April 2023, Coupangeats began offering a limitless 10% discount for Wow members (Coupang membership), whose service includes rocket service (regular and early morning delivery) and Coupangplay (video contents) with a 4900 won rate per month. In May, Yogiyo began offering a paid delivery-free membership, YogipassX, for over 17,000 won purchases with a 9,900 won rate per month. Yet, users preferred Eats, which offered more benefits at half the subscription rate.

After all, Yogiyo lowered the price of YogiyoX down to 4,900 won, which is the same rate as the Coupang Wow subscription, on November 20, 2023. Besides, Yogiyo began initiating customised delivery curation services based on AI by making changes in the app's UI and UX.

And, again, Coupangeats has attempted to offer better service to its customers since March 26 by replacing the limitless 10% d/c with a limitless delivery fee for overall Eats menus, along with an allowance in multiple d/c for Wow members. (regardless of the number of menus, food prices, and delivery distance) Concerning the food delivery cost being between 3 thousand and 7 thousand won in December 2023 and Yogiyo having a condition of over 17000 won for free delivery, I predict that the limitless delivery free of the Wow membership will be more beneficial from the customer point of view.

Thus, it is probably a matter of time before Coupangeats ranks second, though the timing can differ depending on the responses of Yogiyo. Above all, I see that this is good news for us customers, as competition between businesses results in good quality of service. Let's wait and see who's going to win over the hearts of value consumers.