Thai Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) announced on Monday the launch of its new food delivery application Robinhood, as surging demand for food delivery services during the COVID-19 pandemic has fuelled competition in the sector.
Robinhood, developed by Purple Ventures, a subsidiary of the bank’s venture capital arm SCB 10X, is a homegrown alternative food delivery app that aims to support at least 16,000 small restaurants and merchants. According to the company’s statement, the platform will help boost sales for small restaurants and provide a less costly option compared to other platforms such as GrabFood and Foodpanda.
SCB’s new food delivery app does not charge any fee to merchants, while most platforms charge as much as 30% of restaurants’ gross profits on their apps, according to the company.
The bank has allocated an annual budget of THB 150 million (USD 4.7 million) for the food delivery platform, a pilot project that will run through this year. The firm does not plan to monetize during this period, according to Bangkok Post.
The news came three months after the Thai government imposed service fee control over food delivery platforms in July, which prevents operators from setting unfair service fees and conditions on merchants and restaurants, according to Reuters.
Thailand’s online food delivery market revenue is expected to reach USD 275 million this year, increasing to USD 455 million by 2024, according to Statista. Currently, the market is dominated by four major players—GrabFood, Foodpanda, Line Man Wongnai, and Get, the Thai unit of Indonesian delivery and ride-hailing firm Gojek.