Please explain the foodpanda business model and how it has been operating in MM.
foodpanda is Asia’s largest food and grocery delivery platform and a fully-owned subsidiary of Delivery Hero, a global leader of the food delivery industry. foodpanda connects customers to thousands of local restaurants, retailers and stores via a single tech platform, and is aimed at delivering convenience while uplifting communities in this digital economy. The foodpanda ecosystem comprises three main stakeholders (riders, restaurants & rhops partners and customers). Customers browse the app and order food or groceries and vendors prepare the order for delivery. At the same time, a foodpanda rider receives the order and will make his way to the restaurant or store. When the food or groceries orders are ready, the rider picks it up and delivers it to the customer.
Through its operations, foodpanda helps restaurants and shops increase brand visibility, delivery sales through online and mobile platforms, and provides them with constantly evolving technology and analytics, foodpanda invests in technology and product development, to constantly upgrade and maintain its customer, vendor and rider apps. It also rolls out offers and incentives such as monthly promo codes that help customers to lessen the wallets’ burden, while providing a flexible income and supporting the livelihoods of its freelance riders.
Please explain the ownership structure of foodpanda and the eventual beneficiary.
foodpanda Myanmar is a fully-owned subsidiary of Delivery Hero, a global leader (and largest food delivery aggregator outside of China) in the food delivery industry. Registered as a (fully) foreign-owned private limited company “DH Myanmar Co. Ltd.”, the Myanmar operations are led by Zeyar Mynn, the CEO of foodpanda’s Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar cluster.
How do you resolve rider concerns?
foodpanda is committed to conducting a responsible business that positively impacts our partners, riders and customers on a daily basis. We provide an innovative tech platform to vendors, riders and customers in Myanmar, so that businesses can use the platform to grow their operation, while providing riders with competitive income and create value proposition for our customers. Feedback, of both good or bad experiences are equally important for us, because they guide our improvements. By paying close attention to the feedback and suggestions across all available channels from all stakeholders (vendors, riders, customers), together we put effort and work constructively to improve as much as we can. Here are some of the key highlights which had been implemented:
As freelance riders, foodpanda provides riders with flexible working hours and they earn an income based on the number of shifts and hours they take. A rider earns between 300,000 Kyats to 600,000 Kyats per month on average. Addition to that, foodpanda also provides other support services such as well-being and other riders’ welfare programs.
Since September 2022, we have issued rider ID cards to enable easy identification by customers when receiving deliveries as well as for riders’ safety.
As industry leader, what % of market share do you believe you have in major cities such as Yangon and Mandalay?
foodpanda has come a long way since our launch in December 2019. We are proud to have grown to become the industry leader in on-demand delivery platforms in Myanmar. We are operational across 16 cities, including major cities in Myanmar such as Yangon, Mandalay, Nay Pyi Taw, Maw La Myine, Bago and Taung Gyi. Throughout the years, we have brought online over 25,000 merchant-partners onto our platform and supported over 8000 freelance riders across the country while impacting countless customers’ lives.
In what ways do you participate in taking care of the welfare of contract delivery workers?
Riders have always been and will always be an important part of our community. We are committed to invest in strategies, programs, and initiatives that focus on the engagement, experience and empowerment of our freelance riders. While we are proud of what we have done so far, we also recognise that we are not yet where we want to be and we will continue to invest to increase the wellbeing and income creation for our riders. Following are some of our initiatives towards rider engagement throughout a given year:
Covid Response: To offer better protection, the company provided Covid Vaccination for the riders across regions in Sep 2021 and Nov 2021.
Free Meal, Rice and Groceries Donations: Food and groceries are the integral part of our business and we would like to do our part to make this basic necessity as accessible as possible to those in need, foodpanda Myanmar implemented its “Care Package” sharing programs to its freelance riders, donating rice, cooking oils, medicines to more than 3000 riders nationwide multiple times during 2021 and 2022.
Process Re-engineering: Extensive adjustments and improvements were conducted where necessary to facilitate smoother operations and making our platform safer and more convenient for all platform users.
Education Assistance Program: With the aim of providing improved access to basic education, we support an education assistance program (Mobile Learning Application) to the children of panda riders. Mobile learning is also a part of the new learning landscape created by the availability of technologies supporting accessibility and flexibility.
Well-Being Programs: Series of monthly health talks, mental well-being webinars, personal grooming & hygiene trainings are designed to provide freelance riders the tools, knowledge and support they need to improve and upgrade their well-being.
Road Safety Training Program: Traffic Rules & Regulations training had been conducted in Nay Pyi Taw and Pyin Oo Lwin in 2020 before Covid pandemic. We will continue to roll out the programs across our operation cities moving forward.
Aid & Support: Aid and support were provided for riders who suffered losses in road accidents during their working hours and natural disasters.
What specific CSR have you done in Myanmar in the past one year? If possible, please state the $ value.
We recognise we have a wider impact and responsibility towards communities. We are continuously investing to improve the lives of people in Myanmar through tech and innovation, empowering local communities, enabling digital empowerment and inclusion and driving sustainable transformation within our business ecosystem. We dedicated over 2% of net profit to grow our communities across the country and we strongly believe that this investment will help support the community of riders, digitalize merchants and customer communities.
As foodpanda has reached 3 years old in Myanmar, how would you describe your journey? What are your future plans?
foodpanda has grown a lot since we started as a small company with 20 employees when we entered Myanmar in 2019. In our earlier days, food delivery platforms were a new concept. We thus had to embark on educating our community on how technology can improve their livelihoods. We had to embark on a lot of groundwork to explain to customers the convenience we bring, to help restaurant and shops partners digitalise their business, and onboard riders who were new to flexible work.
During Covid pandemic, since the country went into a mandatory lockdown, a lot of business disruptions have occurred, and it has impacted many industries. It has also been challenging for our business operations as the pandemic has especially impacted the restaurant businesses. However, if there was one good thing that came out of this challenging time, it was the massive awareness about the benefits of online ordering of food, groceries, and many other daily essentials as innovative solutions. Particularly to us, many dining establishments upgraded their services by collaborating with us to accommodate customers who want to maintain safety. Since then, online food delivery services have fuelled a new demand in the country and globally.
We have witnessed tremendous growth in the market when we entered and since then we have been expanding across the country. We deliver food and groceries to millions of our customers via partnerships with 20,000+ restaurants and shops, and 8000+ freelance riders across the 16 cities, foodpanda remains committed to continuously focus and invest on technologies and foster a digital business ecosystem for our community of riders, restaurants & shops partners and customers in Myanmar to thrive.
