South Korea's food delivery apps lose users as dual pricing, high costs bite

Yogiyo's promotional event with mukbang YouTuber Tzuyang [YouTube Yogiyo]

"I mainly use two food delivery apps. I recently checked just one of them and found I had spent 43 million won ($28,600) on orders in a single year." — mukbang star Tzuyang

The food delivery app boom that once swept South Korea is fading. After years of steady growth, monthly active users on major delivery platforms have begun to decline.

According to a Mobile Index analysis of monthly delivery app users from January through June this year, Baemin's user base slipped from about 22.61 million to about 22.28 million — a drop of roughly 1.44 percent — while Yogiyo's fell 9.9 percent, from about 5.22 million to about 4.7 million. Coupang Eats was the only platform to post an increase.

Yogiyo's monthly user count had already fallen below 5 million last year and continued declining throughout the first half of this year.

The sharp drop in users pushed Yogiyo to an operating loss of about 15.3 billion won last year. Its sales also fell sharply — from 285.7 billion won in 2023 to 275.2 billion won in 2024 and 201.1 billion won last year.

Even market leader Baemin saw its operating profit fall 7 percent year on year last year, to 592.9 billion won.

Yogiyo's "unlimited points" promotional event with mukbang YouTuber Tzuyang, which drew wide attention earlier this year [YouTube Yogiyo]

As recently as the first half of last year, delivery app user numbers were hitting new weekly highs. The reversal appears to be driven by the growing financial strain of relying on delivery apps, as many restaurant brands selling through platforms such as Baemin and Coupang Eats charge more for delivery orders than for in-store purchases — a practice known as dual pricing.

A Korea Consumer Agency survey last year found that ordering two whole chickens — one fried, one seasoned — through a delivery app cost about 4,000 won more than buying them at a store.

Meanwhile, more than half of delivery app users rely on two or more platforms at the same time, a behavior known as "multi-homing."

A Ministry of Science and ICT survey of 2,500 food delivery platform users found that 55 percent used two or more platforms, while 15 percent used all three major platforms — Baemin, Coupang Eats and Yogiyo. The average order value per transaction reached 28,800 won.

park@heraldcorp.com