Indonesia’s online food delivery service is growing at a rapid pace and is making a substantial impact on the food delivery industry, with its offshoots including generating business growth for food and restaurant businesses and empowering micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Indonesia’s leading online food delivery service GO-FOOD has been having such an impact and is changing the way Indonesians go about choosing their meals. More Indonesians now use GO-FOOD services in getting their meals delivered to their door.
Since it was first established in 2015, GO-FOOD has grown to become the number one online food delivery service in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, as reinforced by a recent University of Indonesia (LD FEB UI) study titled “GOJEK’s Impact on the Indonesian Economy in 2018” which suggests that GO-FOOD leads Indonesia’s online food delivery industry with an 80% market share, four times larger than its closest competitor.
GO-FOOD’s success has not been a walk in the park, but the result of an in-depth technological development and service excellence as the backbone of the business. Right now, technology and reliability are key to profitability on the GO-FOOD platform, with 87% of merchants considering GO-FOOD’s service to be more trusted and safer than its competitors. Furthermore, 90% of merchants joined GO-FOOD because GO-FOOD was more established in Indonesia than its competitors.
There are 400,000 merchant partners as of today (in Southeast Asia), of which 96% are MSMEs. The revenues of GO-FOOD’s MSME partners on average have increased by 3.5 times since they first joined the platform. Today, GO-FOOD leads Indonesia’s online food delivery industry with an 80% market share, four times larger than its closest competitor. This achievement has been led by the exponential increase of GO-FOOD orders, which have grown sevenfold in the past 2 years.
When asked about GO-FOOD’s astounding achievement, Catherine Hindra Sutjahyo, chief food officer of GOJEK Group, said the technology ecosystem was the key to growing merchants’ business.
"We are proud of the significant contributions GO-FOOD's merchant partners have made to the Indonesian economy through our technology. Beyond providing direct access to the market, the key to GO-FOOD's success in growing merchants’ businesses is our technology ecosystem, which has holistically helped to find solutions to existing business pain points. GO-FOOD’s philosophy is like a triangle which every corner represents our merchant, customer, and driver – our objective is always to empower these three corners"
The LD FEB UI survey also reveals that merchants consider technology and reliability to be the key to profitability on the GO-FOOD platform, with 92% of merchants joining GO-FOOD because of GO-BIZ, which is GO-FOOD’s merchant management application. Ninety-three percent of merchants also experienced an increase in transaction volume after using GO-BIZ.
“Ninety-two percent of merchants joined GO-FOOD because of GO-BIZ, which is GO-FOOD’s merchant management application. Ninety-three percent of merchants also experienced an increase in transaction volume after they used GO-BIZ. This achievement has been led by the exponential increase of GO-FOOD orders, which have grown sevenfold in the past two years,” Catherine added.
GO-BIZ (formerly known as GO-RESTO) is an exclusive merchant management application for GO-FOOD merchant partners. Through GO-BIZ, merchant partners can access its superior features, including a digital transaction history, income and expenses; utilizing GO-PAY’s e-wallet features; updating menus, prices, photos and food item availability; managing operating hours; viewing order list details, and more. This application is also equipped with a PIN verification feature to ensure security for merchants. GO-BIZ also enables the convenience of accepting cashless payments via GO-PAY.
"With the trust of our partners and consumers, we believe that GO-FOOD will not only continue to be number one in Indonesia, but also extend our leadership into Southeast Asia," Catherine concluded.
The LD FEB UI study surveyed 1,000 MSMEs across nine major cities in Indonesia and highlighted GO-FOOD’s contribution to the economy, which was 18 trillion rupiah (US$1.28 billion) in 2018 alone. The survey also revealed that 87% of merchants considered GO-FOOD’s service to be more trusted and safer than its competitors, with 90% of merchants joining GO-FOOD because GO-FOOD is more established in Indonesia than its competitors and 87% of merchants joining GO-FOOD due to its advanced transaction security, which allows for safer transactions via a dedicated PIN between merchants and drivers.
Celebrating its successes, GO-FOOD officially launched GO-FOOD HARKULNAS (Hari Kuliner Nasional – National Culinary Day), an annual series of events in Indonesia celebrating the contributions of merchants, driver partners, and GO-FOOD’s loyal customers who have driven GO-FOOD's contributions to the Indonesian economy.
Now in its second year, GO-FOOD HARKULNAS will take place over 20 days across 16 cities in Indonesia. It is the biggest online and offline culinary party in Indonesia by GO-FOOD and is commemorated every May 5th. HARKULNAS presents a full-blown promotion program from April 15 until May 5.
