COVID-19 means bonanza for food delivery

Fantuan's co-founder Feng Yaofei, said the company envisions that as COVID-19 begins to fade, the dine-in business — consumers who choose a restaurant based on reviews on Fantuan and physically go there — could rise to one-fifth of the total consumers who click a handheld device to order food delivery."

Zhu attributed Fantuan's rapid growth to the model of "copying from China".

The Meituan app, with the most customers in China, saw its revenue hit 114.8 billion yuan last year, a surge of 17.7 percent year-on-year, according to its annual financial reports revealed in March.

Meituan profits not only from delivery but also from its restaurant reviews of dine-in business in first- to fourth-tier Chinese cities.

In addition, Fantuan's development benefits from its research and development and central control centers in Tianjin, thanks to lowered business costs and a leading R&D team.

"We are riding the tide on which many leading internet companies are basing their R&D in China. We began our move in 2016," Zhu said.

Online meeting service provider Zoom Video Communications, founded by a Chinese entrepreneur and based in the United States, has set up three R&D centers since 2011 — in Hangzhou, Suzhou and Hefei.

The largest e-commerce company in Southeast Asia, Shopee, also founded by a Chinese entrepreneur and based in Singapore, has set up three R&D centers since 2016 — in Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai.

The largest South Korean e-commerce company built an R&D center in Beijing last year.

Zhu added: "The Tianjin government has provided favorable policies for foreign entities and the city has a talent pool from which we can hire people to provide R&D support."

He noted that "Fantuan is facing challenges related to supply. The industry has changed significantly, with many restaurants having been shut down, but some are ready for reopening. How to educate restaurant owners about the importance of online restaurant operations will be the next long-term project."