Shopee is gearing up for the launch of its food delivery service ShopeeFood in Thailand. This comes after Foodpanda’s business in the country lost a number of users and merchants on its platform after a social media fiasco in July.
A Shopee delivery worker meets his customer / Photo credit: Sea Ltd
ShopeeFood already has a verified Facebook page for its business in Thailand. Looking into the page’s history, it was created in December 2016 as Foody Bangkok and had its name changed to ShopeeFood TH in October last year.
Recent posts on the Facebook page allude to ShopeeFood Thailand’s imminent launch. A rider for the delivery service has already been spotted on the streets of Bangkok (apparently wearing a Grab jacket).
The expansion comes after Foodpanda Thailand was blasted online after the Delivery Hero-owned firm said it would fire a rider who took part in a pro-democracy movement.
The Ken, citing a source, reported that Foodpanda lost 2 million user accounts and 90,000 merchants from its platform in the country. Third-party estimates reviewed by Tech in Asia show a decline in active users that’s much less steep.
Foodpanda told Tech in Asia that any statistics in the public domain are just market speculation and often inflated, as the company did not official announce any figures.
“In Thailand, Foodpanda is the only food delivery platform covering all 77 provinces nationwide,” the company said. “With almost a decade of operations, we have a deep understanding of the needs of our customers and restaurant partners.”
The company has been operating in Thailand since 2012.
Tech in Asia has reached out to Sea for comments.
With its entry into Thailand, ShopeeFood is primed to go up against established companies such as Foodpanda, Grab, local player Ginja, and Line Man, the on-demand service of instant messaging firm Line.
The move follows ShopeeFood’s official launch in Vietnam in August this year, with the rebranding of Foody Corporation’s delivery platform, NowFood. Foody was acquired by Sea Group in 2017 in a US$64 million deal.
Earlier this year, ShopeeFood also launched in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Update (October 7, 9:40 am): This article was updated to include a response from Foodpanda.
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