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The Financial Times also did a feature this weekend, see https://www.ft.com/content/af232e7a-b516-11e9-8cb2-799a3a8cf37b https://www.ft.com/content/af232e7a-b51

The Financial Times also did a feature this weekend, see https://www.ft.com/content/af232e7a-b516-11e9-8cb2-799a3a8cf37b https://www.ft.com/content/af232e7a-b516-11e9-8cb2-799a3a8cf... .. international print version was different. Both Economist and FT probably prompted by market research announcement. Here in China, consolidation continues but there remain quite a number of smaller players. It's a brutal space, very high capex, very low USP, thin margins, no return unless you scale. Basically the main players exist through VC and eyeball trading. You have to wonder what security they have against eg. Tencent/WeChat just sidestepping them. Especially as there is a lot of history of nasty backstabbing marketplace-takes-your-model in China, eg. we saw Qunar do this to hotel reservation networks (I used to run one). One area of resistance to commodified last mile delivery seems to be large chains, like KFC/McDonalds, who offer their own delivery drivers in a bid to retain control, customer ownership and margins. A major play right now for delivery operators seems to be ghost kitchen establishment and operator partnerships. We anticipate entering the Chinese consumer food retail market within the next two quarters with closer-to-consumer, robot-produced, personalized cuisine cooked to order in an autonomous kiosk format (wholly owned and operated).

mc32 7y ago
Maybe KFC, McD, etc. want to retain control of their product up to the time it delivers the items to the buyer/customer. There was a recent investigation showing s considerable amount of food delivery drivers for hire (door dash, ubereats, etc.) helped themselves to some of their customers’ food. I’m sure the chains want better control over who delivers their food and in what state.
Godel_unicode 7y ago
> "resistance to commodified last mile delivery seems to be large chains, like KFC/McDonalds" In many US markets, those national brands are all on Uber Eats.
toomanybeersies 7y ago
You might want to put a disclaimer at the bottom of your post that you are working in the automated food space (http://infinite-food.com/ http://infinite-food.com/).
- contingencies 7y ago
  <literally-at-bottom-of-post>We anticipate entering the Chinese consumer food retail market...</literally-at-bottom-of-post> How is this unclear?
  - tiredyam 7y ago
    ideally the disclaimer would be your very first sentence or at least separated from the rest of text at the bottom
    - Canada 7y ago
      Why should he have to include a disclaimer of any kind?
- simonebrunozzi 7y ago
  I disagree with you, I don't think that a disclaimer here is necessary. The fact that he works for a company operating in a space relevant to the article does not mean that he needs to disclose that explicitly.
RandallBrown 7y ago
KFC uses Grubhub for delivery, unless something has very recently changed.
- IntelMiner 7y ago
  They use Deliveroo in Australia at least
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  KFC and McDonald’s in China have their own delivery people, and grub hub doesn’t even exist. They are basically crew of those restaurants and all have company branded e-bikes.
- seanhandley 7y ago
  Not just GrubHub. They partner with Just Eat. I'm an employee at stuart.com and we handle a lot of their deliveries.
  - RandallBrown 7y ago
    I should have clarified that in the US they use Grubhub.

mc32 7y ago

Maybe KFC, McD, etc. want to retain control of their product up to the time it delivers the items to the buyer/customer. There was a recent investigation showing s considerable amount of food delivery drivers for hire (door dash, ubereats, etc.) helped themselves to some of their customers’ food. I’m sure the chains want better control over who delivers their food and in what state.

Godel_unicode 7y ago

> "resistance to commodified last mile delivery seems to be large chains, like KFC/McDonalds" In many US markets, those national brands are all on Uber Eats.

toomanybeersies 7y ago

You might want to put a disclaimer at the bottom of your post that you are working in the automated food space (http://infinite-food.com/ http://infinite-food.com/).

contingencies 7y ago
<literally-at-bottom-of-post>We anticipate entering the Chinese consumer food retail market...</literally-at-bottom-of-post> How is this unclear?
- tiredyam 7y ago
  ideally the disclaimer would be your very first sentence or at least separated from the rest of text at the bottom
  - Canada 7y ago
    Why should he have to include a disclaimer of any kind?
simonebrunozzi 7y ago
I disagree with you, I don't think that a disclaimer here is necessary. The fact that he works for a company operating in a space relevant to the article does not mean that he needs to disclose that explicitly.

RandallBrown 7y ago

KFC uses Grubhub for delivery, unless something has very recently changed.

IntelMiner 7y ago
They use Deliveroo in Australia at least
seanmcdirmid 7y ago
KFC and McDonald’s in China have their own delivery people, and grub hub doesn’t even exist. They are basically crew of those restaurants and all have company branded e-bikes.
seanhandley 7y ago
Not just GrubHub. They partner with Just Eat. I'm an employee at stuart.com and we handle a lot of their deliveries.
- RandallBrown 7y ago
  I should have clarified that in the US they use Grubhub.