By XIAO Fang
Douyin has started food deliveries in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu.
The short video platform owned by ByteDance has actually been quietly delivering meals for three months. The strategy was to keep a low profile, camouflaged as community group buying. There is no membership in the delivery service. Users just search the keyword “takeout” to find restaurants listed under “lifestyle services.”
Jiemian News tried out the service and found mostly bakeries offering set meals at a higher price.
To open on Douyin, restaurants must be brick-and-mortar stores and pay 2.5 percent to Douyin. Most orders are delivered by the shops themselves. Douyin offers third-party deliveries for around 8 yuan per order. Restaurants do not sign deals directly with Douyin, but through agents who charge eight to ten percent of their revenue.
All that combined means for each order, the shop has to give up on at least 20 percent of whatever they receive. In low-margin businesses like catering, it does not look like a good deal. Restaurants have to publish videos on the platform, which also cost money.
Douyin takeout could be a cherry-on-top business for higher-margin restaurants like hot pot, grilling or seafood, but for those who really want to make money through takeout, Ele.me and Meituan are better choices for now.
TMTpost reported Wednesday that Douyin plans to expand the takeout business nationwide in March, but later the platform said it would see how it goes in the three cities before deciding the next step.
