by Mitori Liu
July 21, 2022
Story brief
ByteDance’s short video sharing platform Douyin is planning to launch feature that offers delivery service of food and group-purchased products to its users.
Story in detail
According to an article on scmp.com(https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3185580/douyin-chinas-tiktok-tests-food-delivery-bringing-bytedance-market), on the purpose of saving local businesses, especially restaurants from financial difficulties during the pandemic, Douyin will allow its users to order food with delivery on its platform. However, the company will not recruit any riders, so restaurants need to delivery their food on their own or through other third-party delivery services. The plan of the delivery feature is ByteDance’s second attempt in breaking into the duopoly of Meituan and Ele.me from Alibaba, after its launch of “Xindong Waimai” last year, which has not been widely promoted.
Implication
Douyin should take advantage of its massive user base, as well as its livestreaming function to promote its food delivery feature. Live stream of riders’ route can be set up during the delivery process for users to watch to guarantee the quality of both products and the delivery service, while entertaining Douyin users through video watching. As users are allowed to track the real-time location, movement, and action of riders in a more vivid way, riders on Douyin tend to be more trustworthy than those from traditional food delivery platforms, in which riders are spotted only as dots on the map. In this way, Douyin delivery service can stand out and differ from conventional food delivery platforms, and thus to gain its own competitiveness.
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