SEOUL: Chef Youm Jung-phil plans to close his restaurant in Seoul's affluent Gangnam district this month, worn down by the rising cost of labor and rent as well as declines in the number of customers eating in.
That, plus a near 30 per cent rise in the minimum wage over the past two years, is helping drive a rapid shift to shared kitchens and delivery-only businesses, industry executives and investors say - a shift which threatens the traditional restaurant industry.South Korea is the first overseas market Los Angeles-based CloudKitchens has entered under its own brand, people with knowledge of the matter said.
CloudKitchens, which also offers restaurant owners marketing support, is a unit of shared service provider City Storage Systems which scandal-hit Kalanick bought last year for US$150 million after stepping down as Uber CEO. Kalanick has since acquired UK commercial kitchen firm FoodStars and is reportedly looking at investing in China.
Its online market for food delivery and pickup more than doubled over the past five years to US$5.9 billion - bigger than Japan and Germany's markets combined and trailing only China, the United States and the United Kingdom, Euromonitor data also showed. Euromonitor expects the South Korean market to grow to US$9 billion by 2023.
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