In 2020, Chowbus was listed by Andreessen Horowitz as one of the largest and fastest-growing consumer-facing marketplaces.įantuan (饭团), meaning Rice Roll, is the largest Asian food delivery service in North America. Chowbus manages hundreds of WeChat groups to increase user "stickiness." "Each time we start a new WeChat group, we see explosive user growth in that locality."Ĭompared to its competitors Fantuan and HungryPanda, Chowbus is better-recognized in the mainstream market - about 30% of its 500,000 users are non-Asian. "We always look to China for new marketing and user engagement tactics," Gigi Zhang, marketing director at Chowbus, told Protocol. Like Yami, Chowbus also attributes its popularity to social sharing and promotional events, tactics commonly shared across Chinese apps. Chowbus partners with 4,000 Asian restaurants, many of which are mom-and-pop stores run by non-tech-savvy immigrants that are not necessarily on Yelp or Instagram. Originally a local Chicago Chinese lunch box delivery service, Chowbus is now one of the go-to apps for Asian dishes in nearly 30 American and Canadian cities. Founders Linxin Wen and Suyu Zhang - two Chinese international graduates - started Chowbus in 2016 out of frustration with the lack of authentic Chinese food options on mainstream delivery apps. ecommerce industry.Ĭhowbus is an Asian food delivery service based in Chicago. your customers," Zhou revealed that it costs a single-digit dollar amount for Yami to acquire a new user, far below the average $45 customer acquisition cost for the U.S. "If you encourage your customers to post something on WeChat or Weibo, I bet all their friends in the U.S. "The customer acquisition cost is way cheaper than just spending money on Google, on Facebook, on all these traditional channels," Zhou told Protocol. and Canada, Yami deploys over 100 "school ambassadors" who help promote Yami and build communities among international students for free. Yami also operates hundreds of WeChat groups, interacting with customers with promotions, new product releases and soliciting feedback. From the get-go, Yami has been encouraging its users to share shopping experiences and products on Weibo, WeChat, Xiaohongshu and KakaoTalk (a popular Korean messaging app) with monetary incentives. One successful strategy Yami shares with other apps in this article is that it's able to acquire new users through niche social media channels while building a community for customers. Two of Yami's best-selling products are the Laoganma chili crisp and Korean instant noodles. Through mostly word-of-mouth, Yami has amassed 2 million customers across the United States and Canada, 20% of whom are non-Asian customers. It now carries over 4,000 brands of groceries and the trendiest Asian snacks, beauty, home and kitchen products. Headquartered in Brea, California, Yami started as an online shop selling Chinese condiments, dry foods and snacks, targeting Chinese international students and young professionals like himself. Founder and CEO Alex Zhou, a native of eastern China's coastal city of Dalian, founded Yami (亚米) - meaning Asian rice - in 2013 after graduating from Kansas State University. Yami is the first and largest Asian-focused online retailer in North America. Here's a list of essential Asian-focused delivery apps and their user engagement secrets. Compared to delivery apps in other markets, these services acquire users at a significantly lower cost while engaging customers in more effective ways. On the operational side, these Asian-centric food and grocery delivery services replicate the best practices from ecommerce behemoths like Alibaba, JD.com and Meituan. Gradually, those businesses expanded into different regions and countries, while diversifying their customers to include non-Asians interested in Asian foods and cultures. Some Chinese international students, who felt deeply the pain of not being able to get their hands on comfort food, started delivery services after graduation to serve fellow Chinese immigrants. Niche delivery services targeting primarily Asian immigrants have sprung up across North America over the past decade, coinciding with a drastic ecommerce boom in China and an influx of increasingly wealthy Chinese international students on foreign university campuses. These days, unbeknownst to most Americans, Chinese foods - be it the universally beloved Laoganma chili crisp or regional cuisines - are easily accessible in the U.S. Just 10 years ago, it was a pipe dream for the Chinese diaspora to get fresh Chinese ingredients and meals true to their tastes delivered to their doors.
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