We have covered the blossoming food delivery market in Korea quite extensively on beTECH and while the market is firmly dominated by leaders Yogiyo and Baedal-Minjeok, there's a new kid on the block, serving the growing apetite in Korea for foreign cuisine. YNot-Takeout has been around for a few months and I caught up with CEO Phil Neiland for an update.
Get involved in YNot-Takeout by supporting their indiegogo campaign here.
Ynot-Takeout.com was developed by Phil Neiland and a group of friends and delivers international food using Korea's first English-based food ordering system. While the service first only offered an English service, they have now expanded to offer Koreans the opportunity of Seoul's best foreign food as well.
Phil explained that it's been a community project in many ways with many current customers of the startup actually having worked behind the scenes to perfect the service. Customers even have the power to help decide what restaurants should be added to the service be recommednding their favorites. As the company has grown their custormer-first ethos has not changed.
"Customers give us feedback about certain restaurants and about the efficiency of our service" Neiland said. "We set this up from a point of personal demand. We believe variety is the spice of life, and we wanted this variety to be conveniently available for ourselves, our friends and people like us who are on the go, busy or who just want more options to be available at a click of a button."
YNot-Takeout is the first service to offer non-Korean cuisine and also the first food-delivery service in Korea to offer delivery through an English-based online system. The service has been developed specifically with the international community in mind, as well as those traveling through Seoul, but is now offered in Korean as well, due to the increasing appetite among Koreans for more diverse cuisine options.
The service is currently operated in central Seoul by 12 dedicated employees, including a small fleet of drivers. The priority now is to expand to as many partner restaurants as possible.
To make this expansion possible Neiland has set up an Indiegogo campaign and hopes to raise around $20k to build a much needed mobile application and continue with business development.
Current cuisine choices include Thai, Vietnamese, Greek, Italian, Turkish, Mexican, Moroccan, Indian, Pakistani, Russian, American, West African, Chinese, Korean, continental cheeses, burgers, sandwiches and pizzas. Operating hours are 4:30 to 11 p.m. The service is not available on Tuesday and Saturday and the delivery fee is 5,000 won.
Find out more about the Korean food delivery market here.
