The four East Asian markets generated an estimated $38.6 billion in food delivery platform gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2025, Momentum Works said Wednesday.

The firm said in a report that South Korea alone accounted for $28.3 billion, or roughly 73 percent of the total.

Meanwhile Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong generated $4.1 billion, $3.6 billion and $2.6 billion respectively.

Despite sharing similar levels of urbanization, income, foodservice development and demanding work cultures, food delivery penetration varies dramatically — from around 3 percent in Japan to more than 20 percent in South Korea.

This is suggesting that operator execution, not market readiness alone, determines market outcomes.

“People often assume food delivery success is determined by how developed a market is. East Asia shows that isn’t true,” said Jianggan Li, Chief Executive Officer of Momentum Works.

According to him, these four markets look remarkably similar on paper, yet their outcomes are completely different.

“Market readiness is only the precondition. But markets don’t grow by themselves – operators’ relentless push grows markets,” he added.

He also said Asian operators increasingly possess that capability after years of competing in some of the world’s most demanding food delivery markets.

It is noted that East Asia’s food delivery industry is undergoing its biggest leadership transition in more than a decade.

For more than a decade, Delivery Hero built the region’s broadest portfolio of delivery businesses through acquisitions.

Today, that strategy is unravelling. Foodpanda Taiwan is being sold to Grab, Baemin is on the market, foodpanda has lost leadership in Hong Kong, and the company has already exited Japan, according to the report.

At the same time, a new generation of Asian operators – Meituan, Coupang and Grab – are reshaping competition with operating playbooks developed in far more competitive home markets.

The acquisition-led playbook that once made Delivery Hero dominant in Asia is now being challenged by operators built through competition rather than consolidation, said the report.

It is noted that Meituan’s Keeta entered Hong Kong in 2023 with a playbook centered around subsidized one-person meals and rapid network density expansion.

Within 29 months, it became profitable, overtook foodpanda and fundamentally shifted competition from subsidy spending to operational efficiency.

Meanwhile, Taiwan has remained a profitable but comfortable duopoly for years, with market penetration flatlining around 10 percent for years and growth slowing to 5.5 percent as competitive push faded.

Delivery Hero’s repeated attempts to exit, including the blocked 2024 sale to Uber Eats, show that the market’s competitive structure had reached a turning point. Grab’s experience competing in Southeast Asia gives it a credible opportunity to re-energize Taiwan’s food delivery market and return it to double-digit growth.

South Korea’s $28.3 billion market, on the other hand, was built on decades of consumer delivery habits rather than platform creation.

While Baemin remains the market leader, Coupang Eats continues to gain share by leveraging Coupang’s broader ecosystem, raising important questions for any future owner of Baemin.

Despite its wealth, density and sophisticated food ecosystem, Japan’s food delivery penetration remains around 3 percent.

Japan’s extensive convenience store infrastructure and deeply embedded solo-dining culture reduce many of the frictions food delivery solves elsewhere.

Coupang’s Rocket Now is testing whether affordable solo delivery can unlock the next phase of growth.

Unlike the previous generation of global consolidators, the report highlighted today’s Asian operators learned to compete before they learned to expand.

Rather than simply acquiring assets, today’s leading Asian operators have developed capabilities through sustained competition in highly contested markets.

The report argues this operational experience – around density building, unit economics, customer acquisition and ecosystem integration – is becoming a competitive advantage as these companies expand internationally.

“Ownership changes the balance sheet. It doesn’t change the competitive dynamics,

“Whoever owns these assets will still have to compete against operators that have spent years learning how to win in highly competitive markets,” Li added.

Southeast Asia’s food delivery GMV grows 18 percent to $22.7B in 2025 – Momentum Works