German Firm Buys Baedal Minjok

A foreign corporation has recently taken ownership of Baedal Minjok, the top food delivery app in Korea.

By doing so, the German firm Delivery Hero is now set to dominate the Korean market for online food delivery.

Baedal Minjok is run by the Korean company Woowa Brothers, which was founded by Kim Bong-jin in 2010.

The small venture firm drew attention for its kitsch marketing strategy.

It became known for funny and unusual ads, which were especially popular with young people.

Since then, Baedal Minjok has grown into the largest online food delivery service in the nation, generation about 30 million orders per month.

In addition, it has expanded into Vietnam with moderate success.

In late December 2019, Delivery Hero announced that it would pay about 4 billion dollars to become the majority shareholder of Woowa Brothers.

It is the biggest financial deal for a food delivery app ever.

Furthermore, Delivery Hero already owns Yogiyo and Daedaltoing, which are Korea's second and third most popular food delivery apps, respectively.

With its purchase of Woowa Brothers, the German company now operates 99 percent of all online food delivery in the nation.

Some Koreans are wary of this near monopoly.

They said it would be risky to allow one company to take control of the country's lucrative food delivery market, which is the fourth largest in the world.

On the other hand, Delivery Hero insists the purchase of Woowa Brothers was not done to form a monopoly in Korea.

Rather, the German company says it would work with Woowa founder and CEO Kim Bong-jin in creating a joint venture to compete throughout Aisa.

 

• draw attention 관심을 끌다 kitsch kɪtʃ   (인기는 있지만) 질 낮은[가치 없는] 예술품[물건]  strategy ˈstrætədʒi 계획[전략] shareholder |ʃerhoʊldə 주주

• generate ˈdʒenəreɪt 발생시키다, 만들어 내다  generation ˌdʒenəˈreɪʃn  발생 ,세대(비슷한 연령층)  moderate |mɒdəreɪt 보통의, 중간의

• wary ˈweri 경계하는, 조심하는 (→unwary), (=cautious)  monopoly mə|nɑːpəli 독점  risky ˈrɪski  위험한 (=dangerous) lucrative ˈluːkrətɪv  수익성이 좋은