The intense rivalry among the three tech giants has showered Chinese consumers with dirt-cheap indulgences - bubble tea and lattes for as little as 1 Chinese yuan, or $0.14, and meals dropped at their door in under 30 minutes. It's not just food. As growth in China's traditional e-commerce slows, companies are racing into the new fast-delivery segment. "It can be flowers, it can be medications, it can be toiletries," Jason Yu, the managing director for Greater China at consumer insights company Kantar Worldpanel, told Business Insider.
DoorDash has called the proposal "extreme" and said it "puts delivery and the benefits it brings at risk." And "when app lobbyists talk, many Council members pay close attention," writes The City's Claudia Irizarry Aponte.
"Bikes make the most sense" as they allow faster delivery by bypassing congestion, said Cyndi Gilbert, a board member at Bike Brigade, whereas using a car poses additional challenges including parking.
Chowdeck, a Lagos-based food delivery startup that has stayed profitable in a notoriously tough and low-margin market, has raised $9 million in Series A funding to launch a quick commerce strategy and expand into more cities in Nigeria and Ghana.
Yum China posted rising revenues and profits for the most recent quarter, growing even as Chinese consumption continues to be sluggish and as Trump's trade war shakes up global economies.
A restaurant in Sikar, Rajasthan, had an AI-generated dish description stating, 'Small, itchy, blister-like bumps caused by the varicella-zoster virus,' instead of 'Chicken Pops.' This bizarre output demonstrates AI's current limitations in accurately interpreting food descriptors.
Cool and wet weather made for a challenging May in hospitality, but deliveries have provided a brighter spot for restaurants. Nevertheless, growth of 1.8% is not enough to keep pace with inflation.
However, we recently noticed that our spending had gotten extreme. At the beginning of the year, we were ordering dinner to be delivered several days a week.
"Amazon Prime customers are a very engaged customer cohort," says Jamil Ghani, Amazon's worldwide vice president of Prime. More than nine out of 10 orders on Amazon.com or in the app are coming from Prime members returning to the order experience, the company says.