Singapore's leading food delivery company, foodpanda, further cements its commitment to serving Singaporeans as it celebrates its 7th Anniversary in Singapore. Food delivery has been booming in Singapore over the last seven years and the weekly order frequency on foodpanda more than doubled the last 12 months.
2018 was punctuated by a year of firsts for foodpanda Singapore. From launching the first dine-in restaurant in the country to introduce "Pick-Up" – the first of its kind feature for a Singapore food delivery company, while continuing pioneering the sustainability movement in the industry.
Looking ahead, foodpanda is dedicated to serving the region continuously with the best food delivery experience and industry-first technological innovations. From an enhanced user interface to the widest variety of food choices at the prices consumers love, together with services that will bring even more convenience to Singaporeans' everyday lives.
ESTABLISHING SINGAPORE AS SOUTHEAST ASIA HQ
As part of Delivery Hero, the leading global online food ordering and delivery marketplace, foodpanda is committed to its mission of bringing the best variety of food to the eight markets it is currently serving in Southeast Asia. As a rapidly expanding region, Southeast Asia continues to present unparalleled opportunities for Delivery Hero. Year-on-year, Asia experienced the greatest growth in orders (114.8 per cent) in Q2 2019[1], well ahead of EMEA (59.7 per cent), the Americas (43.8 per cent) and Europe (42.1 per cent).
Since foodpanda's launch in Singapore in 2012, product development has primarily been managed by Delivery Hero's headquarters in Berlin. However, to efficiently and effectively scale up in Southeast Asia, it was crucial to strengthen technological and product capabilities and tap on the world-class talent across the region.
With the importance of Southeast Asia in its expansion plans, foodpanda has established Singapore as the region's headquarters to ensure proximity to the markets it serves. Singapore will also be at the heart of technological innovation and product development tailored for the region. Working with the most up-to-date and sophisticated technologies, foodpanda will be hiring more than 500 experts across product and engineering teams to form a new technology hub. foodpanda plans to hire 100 engineers over the next three months.
"The Asian market is dynamic with many players helping to shape nascent industries like ours and boost the regional and local economies. Delivery Hero Group is well-positioned in the delivery and marketplace sector in South-East Asia to meet the increasing customer demand through our foodpanda brand. Our foodpanda team is creating amazing experiences for a rapidly growing number of customers across more and more cities and zones. We have been investing successfully in the region and Singapore as a hub, and we are excited about our continued growth, offering a best-in-class experience and innovative tech platform for partners and customers and building a diverse and fun workplace that attracts top global talent," a Delivery Hero spokesperson shared.
ENHANCED RIDER PROTECTION
With the sustained exponential increase in demand for food delivery services over the years, foodpanda Singapore has correspondingly expanded its rider fleet by 74 per cent in 2018 and currently has more than 6,000 riders.
Riders from the backbone of foodpanda's operations and their welfare is a key focus. Apart from establishing a strong network to aid and support riders in their day-to-day operations, foodpanda also has various avenues such as dedicated physical rider hubs, Telegram chat groups and rider cohesion activities.
To further enhance rider welfare safety, foodpanda worked closely with the LTA to launch its first Safe Riding Programme in July this year, with plans to hold regular sessions throughout the year. foodpanda Singapore has rolled out insurance packages for all riders, providing preferential rates from foodpanda's insurance partners. foodpanda will also launch a RideSafe Platform, which will address issues around PMD rider safety and educate and inform riders on safe riding and LTA regulations.
In partnership with NTUC Income, foodpanda Singapore will be offering free third-party liability insurance for all active PMD and bicycle riders from September 2019.
Peter Tay, NTUC Income's Chief Digital Officer, said: "Food delivery riders have flexible work schedules and would require an insurance proposition that offers them protection when they are on a job. Leveraging foodpanda's riders and delivery data, we co-created with foodpanda a dynamic third-party liability insurance cover for each job that the delivery rider undertakes. This partnership with foodpanda plays to our quest to redefine how insurance is purchased and consumed to suit modern lifestyles. With our enhanced insurance capabilities, we are looking forward to introducing more exciting innovations with a stable of partners.
"As independent contractors in the gig economy, we understand it can be difficult for our riders to find insurance packages that address their needs. With the NTUC partnership, we will be able to leverage on digital solutions and co-create innovation insurance packages that our riders will find to be both affordable and beneficial," said Luc Andreani, Managing Director, foodpanda Singapore.
