Seoul’s angels: South Korea food delivery giants rev up rider race amid coronavirus boom

Chey checks her mobile phone as she chooses a delivery job in Seongnam, South Korea. After the pandemic forced classes at her day job to shut, she saw brisk delivery orders at a fried chicken restaurant where she worked part-time, and opted to become a rider herself instead in mid-August. — Reuters

SEOUL: In South Korea, some of the world’s biggest food delivery firms are scrambling to surf an estimated US$4bil (RM16.58bil) wave of new orders, contracting thousands of new riders in a boom triggered by the scourge of the global economy – the coronavirus pandemic.

South Koreans had already developed such an appetite for meal deliveries that the country ranked third in the world last year for food order services, according to consultancy Euromonitor. Now, tough social distancing rules and work-from-home policies to counter the pandemic have fuelled explosive growth.