Meal delivery site Foodpanda arrives in Hong Kong, its fourteenth market in Asia

Foodpanda, the meal delivery service born out of Berlin-based Rocket Internet, announced today it has officially launched in Hong Kong. The coastal city marks the company’s fourteenth destination in Asia, and its forty-fifth destination worldwide.

Foodpanda’s entrance in Hong Kong pits it against Delivery.com – the venture-backed, NYC-based startup launched local service in Hong Kong last April. That company’s site, however, only features 34 merchant listings. Foodpanda, which has operated in stealth in Hong Kong since May, claims to have more than 100 listings. Other competitors in the space include local players like Koziness, which recently acquired Dial-a-Dinner and Soho Delivery, along with any other company that optimizes its SEO for search terms like “Hong Kong Food Delivery.”

Success rates for Rocket Internet ventures tend to vary wildly market-by-market and company-by-company. The self-proclaimed incubator has pushed Foodpanda aggressively around the world, going so far as to acquire competitors in Russia, Hungary, and Brazil. Rocket’s bull bet on food delivery perhaps explains it’s relatively delayed entrance into Hong Kong, where it will rest alongside just two other Rocket ventures: taxi app Easy Taxi and property listing site Wimdu.

Editing by Steven Millward; top image via Flickr user cricru