Finn Liu works 60-hour weeks in the heart of Beijing’s Silicon Valley — fuelled, in no small measure, by the meals he has delivered to his desk. He is not alone: come lunchtime, armies of uniformed delivery men descend on his office building, yelling out numbers as workers pour out to collect their noodles, rice bowls and salads.
If the scene looks like a battleground, it is apposite. The fight for supremacy in food delivery and restaurant bookings is ultimately waged by two of the world’s biggest companies — Alibaba and Tencent, China’s duo of tech titans that are worth a combined $900bn — in a big chunk of the Rmb8.73tn ($1.27tn) food retail and service market, according to iResearch.
Like other battles, it is being fought with cash: hefty subsidies that allow diners to eat restaurant food for less than it would cost to cook. Mr Liu’s calculation illustrates the point: he spends Rmb70 a day on lunch and dinner; were he to cook for himself and his roommate it would be Rmb50 per meal. Besides, he shrugs, “I’m too busy to cook and I’m a bit lazy as well.”