LINE MAN Wongnai, Thailand’s leading on-demand and restaurant discovery platform, has reported that the food delivery service is growing faster than the industry as a whole. To solidify its position and become a national champion in the food delivery sector, the company plans to expand growth in provincial areas, venture into non-food services and merchant solutions.
LINE MAN’s gross merchandise value (GMV) has increased by 33%, surpassing market growth, as the company continues to expand growth for non-food services.
Yod Chinsupakul, CEO, LINE MAN Wongnai, stated that from January 2022 until April 2023, the company experienced a 33% increase in GMV. However, the food delivery market is expected to decline by 0.8-6.5% this year, reaching an estimated value of 81-86 billion baht according to KResearch.
In 2022, the number of orders in Bangkok and surrounding areas rose by 25%, with a 27% increase in users. In provincial areas, the number of orders surged by 17%, accompanied by a 10% growth in users. To attract more customers and expand restaurant choices nationwide, LINE MAN plans to invest in marketing efforts. The platform has also introduced user-friendly features like Group Ordering, allowing users to place food orders together with friends and family, as well as LINE MAN Only, offering exclusive restaurants available only on the LINE MAN platform and a feature to collect top-up discount codes.
In addition, LINE MAN is expanding its on-demand services in non-food sectors such as MART, MESSENGER, and TAXI. In 2022, significant milestones included:
- LINE MAN MESSENGER: Express delivery services for packages, documents, and invoicing across all 77 provinces with a fourfold increase in demand in provincial areas, and usage increased by 2X. Urban areas such as Bangkok Metropolitan, Pattaya, and Chiang Mai are the most frequently used service areas. LINE MAN also released a new ‘Pin For Me’ feature for recipients to pin the destinations by themselves, as well as the additional option to assign tasks to riders to help them submit invoicing documents, deliver documents, request signatures, or walk up the building.
- LINE MAN MART: Ordering fresh food and groceries from over 50,000 stores, with a 1.6X increase in orders. Plans to expand to 11 leading hypermarket brands – including B2S, Betagro, BigC, Boots, Family Mart, Fascino, Gourmet Market, Matsumoto, OfficeMate, Pure, and Tops – covering over 2,000 branches nationwide.
- LINE MAN TAXI: Enjoying continuous user demand, with a twofold growth rate in 2022. Utilizing platform strengths such as ease of use, standardization, meter-based fares, and low hailing fees. Furthermore, LINE MAN employs cutting-edge technology to boost taxi drivers’ productivity. Taxi jobs per day have increased by an average of 21% in the last three months.
Merchant Solutions is an important business group for LINE MAN Wongnai, focused on boosting revenue. One of its key offerings is Wongnai POS, a top-ranked restaurant management and sales delivery system in the POS market. With over 50,000 restaurant operators already using it, Wongnai POS is experiencing growth due to the renewed popularity of dining out. LINE MAN aims to further promote the adoption of technology in restaurant management by increasing the usage of Wongnai POS in dine-in restaurants nationwide.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in business practices
In 2022, LINE MAN Wongnai introduced ESG guidelines to address various company-related issues. For instance, they developed a feature on the LINE MAN app to discourage users from accepting plastic cutlery, resulting in a reduction of over 3,286 tons of single-use plastic waste. Furthermore, they plan to add new features, like opting out of condiment packages, to further reduce plastic and food waste, with an expected reduction of over 5 tons of food and plastic waste per month.
The company is committed to enhancing the quality of life and career skills of its riders through training programs in collaboration with agencies like the Department of Skill Development. LINE MAN Wongnai also promotes diversity and inclusion, fostering a safe environment for individuals to express themselves and showcase their full potential. They support social welfare initiatives that aim for gender equality, including providing congratulatory money to same-sex married couples on par with opposite-sex couples, irrespective of the effective date of marriage equality laws in Thailand.
“Our goal today does not confine itself to the area of our success; we also include the achievements of everyone within our ecosystem, which defines sustainable success. We aspire to grow together, following the vision of ‘Help Thai People Live Better,’ with the objective of becoming a national champion that has a positive impact across all sectors and instills pride in Thai people from all walks of life,” Yod concluded.
