China's internet giants are some of the biggest in the world. But their growth has been slowing, so they're looking for new business to feed their appetites and boost market performance. Food delivery platform is catching their eyes, and they are looking to get a bigger slice of the pie compared to competitors.

Group takeout orders have become a new business for many restaurant chains in China, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak. According to iiMedia Research, the scale of the Chinese group meal market will reach 1.6 trillion yuan (225.8 billion U.S. dollars) this year, and account for up to 35 percent of the catering market.

Keeping up with that trend, courier company SF Express recently launched a mini program on WeChat, Feng Shi, which allows companies to directly order meals for a group of employees. Some experts are closely following SF's experiment in entering the food delivery market, which is currently dominated by Meituan-Dianping and Ele.me. 

SF may be big, but it's a new player in a very competitive field.

"Of course, Shunfeng (Chinese Pinyin for SF Express) has existing manpower, existing network to leverage. But on the other hand, it's still a late comer. Most restaurants are already connected with all these major platforms. Shunfeng in a way, their traffic generation may be a major problem," said George Ren, senior partner of Roland Berger, a consulting firm.

SF express is not alone in venturing into the catering market. Video platform iQiyi recently spent one million yuan to establish a new catering company. Ren said companies are hoping this sector can be a new driver for corporate growth.

"Most internet companies since last year have found this kind of growth painful. They have found it's no longer possible to generate something like 30 to 50 percent annual growth. The stock market has put pressure on their valuation. So when they rethink their new normal, they would of course consider expanding into other business. A lot of companies originally starting with the B2C segment are paying more attention to the B2B market," Ren said.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said profits in the country's internet and related service sectors dropped nearly 25 percent during the first quarter compared to the same period last year, to around 18 billion yuan. Revenues in the sector did grow, but only at 1.5 percent year on year, and that's almost 16 percent lower than a year before.

(Cover image: Meituan and Ele.me delivery. /VCG)