Online takeout business spikes amid outbreak

Deliveryman of Meituan-Dianping, the country's largest on-demand service platform, delivers food in Beijing. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)

Online takeout has become the main way for the food and beverage sector to resume work after the COVID-19 outbreak, according to report by Meituan-Dianping, the Chinese on-demand service platform.

According to the latest reports, more than 55 percent of businesses in the catering sector have resumed operations. Most restaurants choose to make up for losses through online business.

Major cities in the country saw rising orders, as well as increased sales revenue in online food takeout. Up to 30 percent of businesses have more takeout orders than before the epidemic.

Though top-tier cities are still the major source of online food takeout, second and third-tier cities witnessed an apparent rise. Urumqi, Harbin, Nanchang, Xi'an and Dongguan are the top five cities that have more online food orders than before the epidemic.

"Data showed the epidemic has helped formed the habit of ordering food online for residents from second and third-tier cities. Online food takeout is gradually penetrating those lower-tier cities," the report noted.

As more office workers start to resume work, hotpot is among the most popular online food takeaways. The number of hotpot orders on Meituan increased more than 50 percent between Feb 24 and March 1 compared with the previous week.