Interview丨U.S.A.... version of the Hungry Mou "Gesoo": called UberEats, the Chinese takeaway should be done this way!

Gesoo is a North American Chinese instant delivery platform that provides users with takeout, supermarkets, fresh food and parcel delivery in the same city, founded in Los Angeles in early 2014. The founding team found that due to the sparseness of the United States and the concentration of Chinese food businesses in the city, it was not very easy for Chinese students, who generally live in the suburbs, to eat delicious Chinese food. This gave the team the idea to create a Chinese food delivery platform for Chinese.

According to the data provided by Gesoo, the U.S. food and beverage industry has a market size of $800 billion, but the takeout business only accounts for 5% of that, but there is a huge gap in demand for takeout. The local Chinese community in the United States is huge, and there are about 14,000 Chinese restaurants, but in the face of the local takeout platform's cultural differences, language barriers, as well as the huge difference with the U.S. restaurant categories, Chinese restaurants access to the takeout business is difficult. On the other hand, U.S. logistics is mainly for long-haul business, with very little same-city express transportation. All of this makes Gesoo's development possible.

Gesoo's business is divided into two parts: instant delivery and same-city freight transportation, which is currently mainly carried out in the Los Angeles urban agglomeration. The instant delivery business covers restaurants, fresh food and supermarkets, while the same-city freight transportation is mainly for same-day delivery of small parcels. After the user places an order on the platform, the system automatically assigns a driver to pick up the food. At present, according to the data provided by Sun Neighborhood to YEEO Dining, there are more than 1,000 registered restaurants on the Gesoo platform, more than 200 active restaurants, and about 30,000 monthly active users.

With China's delivery boy manpower an electric car is different, the United States delivery buddy delivery transportation mainly to the car as the main, Gesoo mainly use the social idle capacity, the platform and the driver to take a similar Uber cooperation, according to the proportion of the delivery fee to the driver. Due to local traffic congestion and dispersed capacity, the delivery time of American takeout is relatively long, and the requirements for delivery time of American cold food are not high, so the tolerance of Americans for delivery time is also high. But Chinese takeout is mostly hot food, which greatly increases the requirements for delivery time.

For any takeout platform, delivery time is one of the most important issues.In 2015, Gesoo tried to expand its business to New York and San Francisco, but at that time, the IT system was not developed enough, the business model was not mature enough, and the takeout took a long time (about 2.5 hours per order), so the plan failed.After 2017, in response to the operational difficulties, Gesoo carried out a system upgrade, conducted distance analysis to improve the accuracy and efficiency of assigning drivers, guaranteed delivery within 8 kilometers in 1 hour and within 16 kilometers in 1.5 hours, and upgraded the client and driver side to shorten the information chain.

In addition, Gesoo has improved its management model for merchants, allowing them to prioritize food delivery to platform users to improve timeliness, and emphasizing the handling of customer complaints by charging users only a $1 service fee. In terms of drivers, Gesoo has raised their income and working standards, and established a strict reward and punishment system. This series of measures has greatly improved the platform's user experience.Since the second half of 2018, Gesoo has re-launched its expansion program, with plans to expand its operations to Phoenix in April 2019, and into Houston and Seattle thereafter.

In addition to technical and management issues, for Gesoo, local U.S. needs and policies are a major headwind. First of all, the situation in the United States varies greatly from region to region. For example, the Los Angeles public **** traffic is very undeveloped, private car traffic jam situation is serious; and New York public **** good traffic conditions, more conducive to the development of takeaway delivery. The different development of the city also brings different user needs, which requires takeaway platforms to understand and take countermeasures in the process of expansion. In addition, the U.S. policy on the catering industry is strictly controlled, do not allow takeaway delivery of hot pot restaurant raw meat, etc., only in January this year to allow private food delivery, but currently does not allow third-party platform access, only by the business self-service.

In response to this problem, the Gesoo team is made up of Chinese with a background of studying in the U.S. to better understand the local situation, and Gesoo's English and Chinese platforms, and two-way understanding of Chinese restaurant culture and U.S. laws and policies, have simplified the process of accessing the takeout business for Chinese restaurants. But whether Gesoo can flexibly respond to different situations in different parts of the U.S. is still a major test for its future development.

The takeout market in North America will reach $21.5 billion in 2019, according to market analyst firm Statista. In the North American market, Chinese takeout platforms have gradually emerged in recent years, in addition to Gesoo in the United States, there are also Tutti and Rice Tuan in Canada. They are all the entrepreneurial achievements of local international students, and are becoming increasingly influential in Chinese circles. However, compared with large takeaway companies GrabHub, UberEats, DoorDash, PostMates, etc., the user groups of Chinese takeaway platforms are basically confined to the Chinese community, and the number of restaurants accessed is also very limited. In particular, takeaway platforms like UberEats, relying on Uber's huge driver base and established user base, have a natural advantage in terms of volume.

The advantage of Chinese takeout platforms is that they are highly targeted and place more emphasis on service quality and user experience. For example, Tutti provides restaurants with real-time delivery services for fresh food, drinks, etc. It also provides a smart restaurant system to help traditional restaurants access the online platform and improve the efficiency of restaurant meals. Tutti App learns from domestic takeout platforms, simplifies the process of user ordering, and builds a customer service system and review system that foreign apps don't have. This is also reflected in Gesoo, which is extending its review business and improving restaurant services to enhance user experience.

Compared to the domestic and international takeout markets, most restaurants in North America use phone takeout services, online takeout accounts for less than 10% of the overall takeout market, and the means of payment is still mainly credit cards. However, Chinese people are more receptive to cell phone ordering and payment, which provides a ground for the development of Chinese takeout platforms, but also inevitably becomes a bottleneck for their development. Fortunately, according to the data of the catering website Eater, Chinese food occupies the top of the most popular takeout categories among North American users, which means that Chinese takeout platforms are likely to be favored by locals on a large scale. In addition, there is no "subsidy war" in North American takeout platforms. Users take it for granted that they will pay for delivery and will give delivery staff a certain amount of tips, which greatly reduces the burden on delivery platforms, and Gesoo has already achieved break-even. Previously Gesoo received a seed round of financing and will open a new round of financing in the first quarter of this year.

In 2019, Gesoo will increase its cooperation with restaurants and expand its restaurant supply chain business, delivering ingredients to Chinese restaurants through cooperation with food companies, farms, and supermarkets.Gesoo will also expand its review business to improve restaurant service and user experience. The scale of instant delivery is Gesoo's development goal for 2019. In addition to moving into more cities, Gesoo will also expand its delivery team to feed the front-end business line with its logistics and delivery capabilities.