Meituan’s KeeTa Reached 21% GMV Share in Hong Kong Food Delivery After Six Months

This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on January 11, 2024.

Xia Guang She, citing Measurable AI transaction e-receipt data, reported that Meituan’s KeeTa quickly became a major new variable in Hong Kong’s food-delivery market after launch. By December 2023, KeeTa held about 21% of Hong Kong’s delivery market by GMV.

KeeTa’s Fast Start

KeeTa entered Hong Kong with an aggressive promotion-led growth strategy. In its first three months, while coverage had not yet expanded across the full city, its market share was below 5%.

Growth accelerated in the following months. By December 2023, KeeTa’s share of food-delivery orders, excluding pickup and grocery orders, had risen to 37%.

On a broader market basis, including online grocery and pickup orders, KeeTa’s share in Q4 2023 was about 15%. In December 2023, Measurable AI estimated KeeTa’s GMV share at roughly 21%, while Foodpanda and Deliveroo still led with about 54% and 25%, respectively.

Measurable AI’s GMV estimates were based on monthly delivery-order data after promotions and discounts, including online grocery and pickup orders, from January 1 to December 31, 2023. Its order-volume estimates for delivery-only share excluded online grocery and pickup orders and covered May 22 to December 31, 2023.

Lower AOV, Higher Order Momentum

KeeTa’s growth came with a noticeably lower average order value. According to Measurable AI’s transaction e-receipt data, KeeTa’s AOV in Hong Kong was about HK$102.

Foodpanda and Deliveroo’s full-year AOVs were generally in the HK$170 to HK$180 range. KeeTa’s delivery-order AOV was only slightly higher than Foodpanda and Deliveroo’s pickup-order AOVs.

For operators, the key question is familiar: how sustainable is rapid share gain when it is driven heavily by incentives?

What KeeTa Still Lacks

Compared with Foodpanda and Deliveroo, KeeTa did not yet offer three important service layers at the time of the article:

• Online grocery delivery
• Pickup service
• Paid membership programs

Foodpanda and Deliveroo had already built meaningful online grocery businesses through Pandamart, Deliveroo Hop, and partnerships with grocery merchants. Measurable AI estimated that online grocery orders accounted for nearly 10% of Foodpanda’s total Hong Kong GMV in 2023.

Pickup was also becoming a larger part of the market. In 2023, both Foodpanda and Deliveroo continued to promote pickup orders. Measurable AI data showed that about 35% of Foodpanda orders were pickup orders in 2023, while Deliveroo’s pickup-order share rose from about 16% to 37%.

Membership was another gap. Foodpanda and Deliveroo both offered premium memberships, Panda Pro and Deliveroo Plus, with exclusive offers and free delivery benefits. Measurable AI data indicated that members showed significantly higher loyalty than non-members.

Competitive Context

Hong Kong’s Competition Commission had recently accepted commitments from Foodpanda and Deliveroo to address concerns that certain requirements imposed on partner restaurants could harm competition. The article stated that, at the end of the prior month, the two companies’ commitments were accepted to amend restaurant agreements, allowing restaurants to work more freely with multiple delivery platforms and set their own pricing.

Those changes did not include cooperation with KeeTa, because KeeTa had already exceeded the small-platform market-share threshold of 10%.

Over the previous five years, Hong Kong’s delivery market had shifted several times. Uber Eats, Foodpanda, and Deliveroo once competed for leadership, with Deliveroo holding more than 60% share in 2019. The pandemic changed the market structure: Foodpanda and Deliveroo moved toward a near split of the market, while Uber Eats had only about 5% share before exiting Hong Kong at the end of 2021. After Uber Eats left, Foodpanda gained momentum and, from 2022, held more than 60% market share by revenue.

Note: Market-share, AOV, and competitive-position figures are historical and reflect the source data available for 2023.