Original article by Angelica Oung, staff reporter, posted September 19, 2020 on Taipei Times

DIGITAL COMMERCE: In 2016, only 2 percent of orders were delivered in Taiwan, but that has risen to 10 percent, Foodpanda Taiwan Co operations director Nick Yu said

Online food delivery platforms have seen explosive growth in Taiwan this year, helped by business opportunities related to the COVID-19 pandemic, company executives said at a digital commerce conference in Taipei yesterday.

When the threat of COVID-19 kept people from going out to eat, more people experimented with ordering food deliveries online, Foodpanda Taiwan Co Ltd (富胖達) operations director Nick Yu (余岳勳) said.

Foodpanda started operations in Taiwan in 2012.

“We experienced 5,000 percent growth in the past 24 months,” Yu said. “That’s more than the previous six years combined.”

In 2016, only 2 percent of food orders were delivered in Taiwan, but that increased to 10 percent four years later, Yu said, adding that the market is far from saturated.

“If you look at China, about 20 percent of the food and beverage market is via delivery,” Yu said. “Taiwan still has a long way to go.”

Yu credits the strategy of localization as key to Foodpanda’s success in Taiwan…