ShopeeFood - Riding the Ecosystem or Burning Cash?
ShopeeFood did not just launch; it slipped in through the side door of Southeast Asia's most addictive shopping app. One moment, you’re browsing the deals; the next, you’re ordering dinner. Was it solely convenience, or something more strategic?
At a glance
Overview
An extensive food delivery feature on Shopee
Year Launched
2021
First market
Vietnam
in 2021
Industry
Food Delivery
Abstract
ShopeeFood entered Southeast Asia’s crowded food delivery market not as a standalone, but as a strategic extension of Shopee, one of the region’s most popular e-commerce platforms. Launched in 2021 through the rebranding of Now, a Vietnam-based foody platform, ShopeeFood leveraged Shopee’s massive user base, integrated payment system, and gamified engagement features to scale rapidly across Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
This case study investigates how ShopeeFood employed a fast-follower strategy and embedded itself within Shopee’s digital ecosystem to reduce customer acquisition costs and drive user engagement. Despite its rapid expansion and growing market share—especially in Vietnam and Indonesia—ShopeeFood struggles with profitability due to high operational costs, intense competition, and consumer sensitivity to pricing.
The case highlights key strategic challenges, including ShopeeFood’s heavy reliance on discounts, potential overdependence on the Shopee platform, and the difficulty of achieving sustainable unit economics.
Using market data, strategic frameworks such as the Ansoff Matrix and Resource-Based View (RBV), and comparative analysis with regional players like GrabFood and GoFood, this study prompts learners to evaluate ShopeeFood’s future: Should it continue expanding or consolidate? Can it build brand equity independent of Shopee?
This problem-solving case encourages critical thinking about platform integration, customer loyalty beyond price incentives, and the viability of ecosystem-driven growth in Southeast Asia’s hyper-competitive food delivery sector.
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(1) Regarding Case Study Content: This case study is based mainly on secondary data and analysis of publicly available information unless otherwise stated, and is intended solely for educational purposes. Any opinions expressed by the author(s) are designed to facilitate learning discussion and do not serve to illustrate the effectiveness of the company. Additionally, banner images and logos used in the case study are intended for visualization in an educational setting and it is not used to represent or brand the company. For any dispute regarding the content and usage of images and logos, please contact the team.
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