O2O catering market sees tenfold increase

The Chinese online to offline (O2O) catering industry market has risen by a factor of ten during the last five years, Beijing Daily reported Monday.

Well-known group purchasing websites, such as meituan.com and ele.me, make up two-thirds of the O2O food delivery market.

China's other tech giants, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, commonly known as the BAT, are also promoting their own on-demand food delivery services, according to a report released by Beijing-based consulting firm Sootoo.

The local O2O food delivery market has grown rapidly from 9.22 billion yuan ($1.48 billion) in 2010 to 138.9 billion yuan ($22.3 billion) in 2015, the report adds.

Factors, such as increasingly popular mobile payment options, the large O2O food delivery market, as well as enhanced service and price support, have promoted industry development.

Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong are the top three cities in terms of O2O user distribution, while development is spreading gradually from first-tier to lower-tier cities.

According to age distribution, users in their twenties and thirties are the main driving force behind the Chinese O2O catering sector, accounting for 45 percent and 36 percent respectively.

With companies coming up with new strategies to expand their networks, the country's O2O food delivery market still has the potential to grow, analysts said, noting that O2O food services companies have to fully explore the market in future.

As important products of the Internet business model, big data analysis and application will be used to determine user needs and service quality. Food safety will get the most attention in the O2O food delivery market, according to analysts from Sootoo.com.