Looking around the world, perhaps Chinese people love ordering takeaway most. The 44th "Statistical Report on China's Internet Development Status" released by CNNIC shows that as of June 2019, the number of online takeout users in China reached 421 million, accounting for about half of the overall number of Internet users.

A recent survey report shows that the market for China’s food delivery industry in the first half of 2019 was approximately 262.3 billion yuan, and the transaction value for the whole of 2019 is expected to increase from 461.3 billion yuan in 2018 to 603.5 billion Yuan, a nominal increase of over 30%.

The "China Takeaway Industry Survey and Research Report (First Half of 2019)" jointly released by Meituan Research Institute and the Takeaway Professional Committee of the China Restaurant Association also reveals many interesting phenomena.

Takeaway desserts and drinks are the most popular

The survey report shows that China’s takeout consumption is dominated by food and desserts and drinks, and the takeaway category has expanded from catering to non-catering. Among them, fast food snacks are the largest food subcategory, accounting for 69% of the food category in the first half of 2019, followed by Western food, local food, seafood barbecue, Japanese and Korean food, etc. In terms of dessert drinks, milk tea juice, desserts, bread/small cakes, birthday cakes, and coffee are the main consumer categories.

Distribution of Meituan’s takeout food categories in the first half of 2019

With the support of intelligent distribution systems, the real-time delivery capabilities of China’s takeout industry have continued to improve, and the takeout service scenarios have expanded from catering to lifestyle supermarkets, fresh fruits and vegetables, medicine and health, flowers and green plants and many other categories.

Would you rather eat takeout at home or in the office? Survey data shows that residential areas have become the largest consumption scenario, accounting for half of the orders in all scenarios in the first half of 2019, followed by office buildings, schools, hotels, and shops.

The report said that the growth of the food delivery industry has shifted from being driven by the growth of user scale to the growth of user purchase frequency. What's the meaning? In other words, people who order takeout are ordering more and more often.

Data show that the average number of transactions per transaction user on the Meituan-Dianping platform in 2017 was 18.8, which increased to 23.8 in 2018, from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019. The average number of transactions per day increased to 25.5.

Eating during the day, evening and night, the takeout consumption period has expanded from the double peak of lunch and dinner to the whole period, and the proportion of nighttime consumption orders has increased significantly.

Under the combined influence of multiple factors such as the increasingly rich variety of takeout categories, faster and more convenient delivery, and proactive extension of business hours by catering merchants, takeout consumption time has begun to shift from the midday peak to the evening peak. The whole time period has been expanded, and the proportion of orders for night consumption (18:00 pm to 6:00 am) has increased significantly.

Data show that in the first half of 2019, Meituan’s nighttime food delivery consumption accounted for 35.7% of all-day consumption. This also reflects from the side that China’s prosperous night-time economy has shown its effects.

What do “night owls” like to eat? Mainly fast food snacks, Western food, and seafood barbecue. Among them, Western food categories account for a higher proportion of nighttime consumption, but after 20 o'clock, the proportion of Western food categories in nighttime consumption decreases rapidly; the proportion of seafood and barbecue categories in nighttime consumption Improved.

It’s interesting. Wear suits and leather shoes before 8 pm, and return to nature after 8 pm!

In the first half of 2019, users consumed more than 150 million seafood barbecue orders on the Meituan takeout platform. Seafood consumption mainly includes crayfish, scallops, and oysters, while barbecue consumption prefers mutton skewers, spicy chicken wings, and meat and bones.

The number of crayfish orders on the Meituan platform exceeded 20 million in the first half of the year. Based on an average of 15 crayfish per order, Meituan’s takeout sales *** sold 300 million crayfish in the first half of 2019. lobster.