Rocket Internet’s Foodpanda, a mobile and online food ordering service, has officially quit operations in Vietnam.
Tim Schefenacker, Foodpanda’s global communications head explained, “We saw a smaller and rather long-term opportunity in Vietnam compared to our other markets and therefore want to focus stronger on [the latter], given Foodpanda’s focus on profitability.”
According to Trương Duy Linh, the general director of Foodpanda in Vietnam, the company was facing financial situation and many difficulties. He also added that all business activities will cease five days after the announcement including its website Foodpanda.vn. A notice of termination has been posted in their social media page to inform their restaurant partners of their decision.
Since Foodpanda’s launching in Vietnam back in 2012 under the HungryPanda banner, the competition for food ordering and delivery services was already heating up in Asia. It had to compete with other strong homegrown brands Vietnammm and Eat.vn.
The competition was so intense that Genk, a Vietnam tech news site, reported that up to the end of 2014 Foodpanda was aggressively trying to get ahead and was even running advertisements on TV. Currently, Foodpanda owns the market in Mexico, Brazil, Russia, India, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia. It has over 38,000 restaurant partners in 500 cities all over the world.
