제 13 호 Monopoly on Delivery Platform Enterprises
Kicker: OPINION (DELIVERY)
Monopoly on Delivery Platform Enterprises
Choi Yeong-Jin, Editor
Are you familiar with delivery food? Lots of people agree that making their own meal is such a hard thing to do, and they often feel the urge to just call to the restaurant and order their dinner instead of deciding what to eat, searching for the recipe, and preparing the meal. If you have enough experiences with delivery food, you might have felt that the delivery fee is way above your head. Many point out that the problem with the expensive delivery fee is with the monopoly of delivery platforms which is causing a big issue not only to the customer, but also at the restaurants as well.
Food Delivery
What Races are We? We are the Delivery Races
Many people are enraged with the platform environment in delivery services. It is criticized as a monopoly* and making it harder for the start-ups* to open up their own franchises. “Delivery Races”, the number one delivery enterprise in Korea is almost considered as the one and only delivery franchise. Although there are other franchises like “Yogiyo”, the second biggest delivery company, and some others, almost all people use Delivery Races in order for delivery services. Since there is no meaningful competition happening in delivery platforms, restaurants and customers have no other choices but to follow if Delivery Races decides to raise the delivery charge.
Before to deeply focus on the commission* system of Delivery Races, I must alert you that Delivery Races is a company that offers services based on a delivery app, not delivering the food themselves. If the customer orders the food by using the app, it is the proxy* deliverer who brings the food to our house. Therefore, delivery enterprises, like Delivery Races, make a contract with the delivery proxy companies for the delivery itself. It is also surprising that more than 95 percent of total delivery orders in the Delivery Races application are being carried out by the delivery proxy companies.
*Monopoly: An organization or group that has complete control of something, especially an area of business, so that others have no share.
*Start-up: A new business, or the activities involved in starting a new business.
*Commission: A payment to someone who sells goods that is directly related to the amount sold, or a system that uses such payments.
*Proxy: Authority given to a person to act for someone else, such as by voting for them in an election, or the person who this authority is given to.
Who is Responsible for the High Delivery Fee?
Sometimes we pay more than 6,000 won for the delivery fee. Then we wonder, we can order another side menu with this money, and why are we just wasting the money meaninglessly? After the coronavirus and after level two-point five social distancing was held in Korea for a long while, customers’ urge for delivery food has skyrocketed* in a big rate. To obtain a bigger fortune, delivery enterprises and restaurants have increased the delivery fee quite a lot. Now you know that setting the delivery fee has little to do with the platform itself, you may question: then who gets my money? Deciding the total delivery fee is up to the local delivery proxy company, and it is the restaurant that decides the actual delivery fee that the customer pays. However, the fact that Delivery Races takes advantages by monopoly does not change.
*Skyrocket: To rise extremely quickly or make extremely quick progress towards success.
Kakao Mobility’s Exploitation* Over Taxi Drivers
Another monopoly held on a platform is about Kakao Mobility. Kakao Mobility’s insane* commission policy and unfair vehicle division led to an angry workers’ demonstration*. Pro membership that Kakao Mobility launched became a big problem, too. What Pro membership offers to taxi drivers is if the drivers pay an extra 99,000 won for the additional service, they get more chance to get customers. The reason why this policy has become a big issue is because normal taxi drivers are experiencing big disadvantages because of it as their monthly salary has been cut in half. Kakao Mobility, apparently, has countered the taxi drivers’ demo in every single argument they have claimed, but it is hard to believe their reasoning as Kakao Mobility is holding the key to the power dynamics*.
*Exploitation: The use of something in order to get an advantage from it.
*Insane: Extremely unreasonable, or mentally ill.
*Demonstration: An occasion when a group of people march or stand together to show that they disagree with or support something or someone.
*Dynamic: The forces that control the relationships people or things have with each other and how those relationships can change.
The main reason of business is to make money, and I do understand that people can act dirty to make more money as they already do. However, in this case when big enterprises either absorb other companies that participate in the same area, or exploit their workers, it is outrageous* as a customer. Though I am not someone who enjoys delivery food, I have heard from lots of people around me that the high delivery fee sometimes becomes such a heavy burden for poor university students to pay. Therefore, I think the enterprises should not only provide high quality services to both their customers and their workers, but also to do their best to make both them and their customers satisfied by setting a reasonable and affordable price for the service.
*Outrageous: Unacceptable, offensive, violent, or unusual.
Sources:
https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20200408047300061
https://news.mt.co.kr/mtview.php?no=2020091510082530355
https://www.edaily.co.kr/news/read?newsId=02341926625896840&mediaCodeNo=257
