Chinese brand disrupts Hong Kong' s food delivery business

In Hong Kong, Wong Ting is known as amember of the “infantry” at the food delivery company Keeta.

- ZIXU WANG.

That means Ms Wong, 50, makes restaurant deliveries by foot. Many of her colleagues use bicycles or motorbikes —the “cavalry,” in Keeta lingo. Ms Wong can log 40,000 steps in a six-hour shift, hoofing it up and down Hong Kong’s busy streets and narrow alleys.

Keeta is the fast-growing overseas brand of Meituan, one of the dominant delivery companies in China. With China’s domestic economy slowing and its consumers more frugal, Chinese brands are seeking new business overseas.

And some, like Meituan, are using Hong Kong as a trial market to test the waters.

A former British colony that has long been a gateway between China and the world, Hong Kong has in recent years become increasingly aligned with China politically and economically. But the city, formally a special zone of China, retains much of its international culture and customs, making it an attractive test bed for Chinese companies.

“Hong Kong is part of the global market with global investors and internationally compliant regulations,’ said Jin Lu, a strategic communications consultant at PRConnect (HK) who has worked with many brands in China, including PepsiCo and McKinsey.

In June, iFlytek, a Chinese information technology company, entered Hong Kong. Its chairman, Liu Qingfeng, said iFlytek saw the city as a “bridgehead” to going overseas, citing its international business services and multilingual population. Another brand testing the waters is Shoo Loong Kan Hot Pot, one of China's largest hot pot franchises, which has opened a branch in Hong Kong. Its manager described the city as “the best window for a company’s brand exposure” in the world.

For Meituan, Hong Kong was the “first step in international exploration,’ the company’s founder, Wang Xing, said in 2023. It initially offered its services to restaurants in what it considered pilot zones: the commercial hub of Mong Kok and the residential area of Tai Kok Tsui.

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