With the rapid development of mobile Internet technology and the continuous pursuit of a convenient lifestyle for modern people, the Online to Offline based delivery market is growing rapidly as the utilization rate of delivery applications increases. Korea and China, the two countries with the most developed mobile Internet, have large delivery markets.
China’s university graduates reached an all-time high of 11.79 million in 2024, but GDP growth was only 5% in the first half of the same year. Large-scale layoffs occurred as many companies close and foreign companies leave China. Many graduates and highly educated people who have been taken to the streets have become engaged in delivery services. As a result, the delivery industry in China is now saturated and competition is intensifying, with many delivery workers waiting for orders. Failure to respond late or kindly to deliveries will result in negative reviews from customers, and if they accumulate, they will be fined hundreds to thousands of yuan a month. There are not a few customers who make unreasonable demands or are indifferent. Due to discrimination among delivery workers, orders that are far from new delivery workers and are usually ordered at low prices. Chinese delivery workers were working an average of 9.8 hours a day, 6.4 days a week. Many of them were found to be working more than 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. This led to an incident where a delivery worker who worked more than 16 hours a day was found dead on a motorcycle.
The same is true in Korea. According to the principle of supply and demand in the market, fierce competition among delivery platform industries leads to a bleeding competition for delivery costs, resulting in many accidents. If the delivery time is not properly calculated and the time limit is too tight, the delivery fee that the rider will receive will be reduced if the delivery is not delivered within the expected time, so the riders drive excessively. In addition, delivery fees are too low to make certain income, so they make delivery by force. In addition, some delivery apps assign call to riders through AI. If AI refuses delivery, delivery fees are reduced or delivery is delayed. For this reason, riders drive dangerously and get into traffic accidents.
To safely develop an active delivery culture, the government should strengthen crackdowns on traffic violations, introduce a salary system to the delivery industry, and from the perspective of consumers, it should be recognized as ‘safely’ rather than ‘quickly’.
SALLY LEE
US ASIA JOURNAL
