Rising from a start-up in 2009, Shanghai-based Eleme has developed into the largest O2O food delivery system in China, with 180,000 contracted restaurants in 200 cities. Its app allows customers to scan the menus of nearby restaurants and place orders online. However, the general principle of "seeing is believing" seems to have failed here. Unable to check the restaurants in person, customers can only base their assessments on pictures of food, which can be misleading.
Convenience vs health
According to Eleme's terms, restaurants must provide detailed information upon joining the platform, including a photocopy of their licenses. However, these measures are slack, as some restaurants on the platform don't have explicit addresses or contact numbers. Some restaurants hadn't even uploaded licenses at all, or had uploaded erroneous licenses.
Eleme said in its terms that the company can only partly control the quality and integrity of its members, but that they have tried their best to conduct background checks. The company reminded customers to use their own judgment when ordering.
China's O2O food delivery market is one of the fastest growing sectors, with 189 million frequent users by 2014, or more than a third of the country's online population, according to a report by research service Pintu360.com. As the business is flourishing, problems such as slack regulation, unclear liability, and food safety concerns have posed threats.
On October 1, a newly revised Food Safety Law took effect, which for the first time lays out the responsibility of O2O operators, including required real-name registration for restaurant owners. Despite the regulations, experts say it will take time to see if they do any good.
Ning Jiajun, from the Center for Networked Governance of the State Information Center, thinks third-party platforms should do more to improve quality control, such as publishing detailed information of the restaurants for public supervision.
