Takeaway into instant noodle terminator？ Expert： Instant noodles can be turned into snack food
Citizens buy instant noodles in supermarkets. Photo by our reporter Yuan Tieli
The rise of online takeout has had a direct impact on instant noodles, and the consumer groups of the two are highly compatible. Many young people who used to live at home and live on instant noodles are the main force of online consumption. Now, you can wait for a meal after paying online, which is even easier than soaking instant noodles.
More importantly, online food delivery is obviously much better than instant noodles in terms of taste and meal size.
Online takeaway is developing rapidly, while the instant noodle industry is shrinking. Will online takeaway be the terminator of instant noodles?
Over the past few days, various institutions and platforms have been releasing big data on the takeaway industry, research reports on the takeaway industry, and white papers on catering takeout. From this information, it can be seen that the development of online takeout has indeed been very rapid in the past two years. On the contrary, the sales and performance of instant noodle giants have been shrinking year by year.
Recently, a reporter from Chongqing Morning Post conducted a survey of the instant noodle market in our city.
1 in 10 people order takeout once a day
According to iiMedia Research data, in the first half of 2017, the high-frequency client base that carried out online takeaway catering consumption at least once a week accounted for nearly 80%, of which 10.2% of online users consumed an average of one or more times a day.
That is to say, at least one in 10 people ordered takeout once a day.
Among these people who order food for takeout, the main group is middle-income white-collar workers. The data shows that among the high-frequency click groups for takeout, 82.3% of users have an income distribution of 3,000-10,000 yuan, and 7.1% of users have an income of more than 10,000 yuan.
And these people happen to like the Internet and stay at home, making them the main consumers of instant noodles.
According to China’s takeaway big data, the size of our country’s O2O takeaway market has exceeded 100 billion yuan in 2016, and it is expected to break through 700 billion yuan by 2020.
According to the statistics from the Ele.me food delivery platform, Ele.me has provided takeaway services for nearly one-tenth of the population in China, and has generated income for merchants with a cumulative 2 million +. It is expected that the penetration rate of takeaway users will reach 80% in 2020, and the user scale will reach 600 million.
Instant noodles are gradually falling out of favor
In contrast to the fission rise of online takeaway big data, the data of the instant noodle market can be said to be quite "ugly".
Data from the World Instant Noodle Association shows that in 2016, the Chinese mainland consumed 38.50 billion, down 17% year-on-year. Consumption reached 46.20 billion in 2013. Unity Group’s net profit in the first half of 2017 fell by 26.5% year-on-year, and instant noodles are falling out of favor in the Chinese market.
According to Nielsen statistics, Tingyi and Unified’s market share has occupied more than 70% of China’s instant noodle market for many years. But since last year, the financial reports of the two companies have been constantly reminding of risks, and the instant noodle business has been declining.
Last year, according to Nielsen’s statistics of 22 instant noodle companies across the country, nine of them experienced a decline in sales, and many brands have begun to adjust their business direction.
Supermarket instant noodle locations reduced by 30%
The reporter visited major supermarkets in our city yesterday and found that the instant noodles that used to occupy the prominent position of fast-moving consumer goods have been compressed to a relatively small position. And at the counter where the instant noodles are placed, some convenient fast food products such as self-heating instant rice and self-heating micro-hot pot are also placed.
"Now it has shrunk by a third," a promoter at the Golden Guanyin store in Carrefour told reporters. Not only has the area been reduced, but the sales of instant noodles are also much worse than before.
Afterwards, the reporter saw at Chongbai, New Century and Yonghui near Guanyin Bridge that the exhibition stands of instant noodles were indeed much smaller than before. However, there were many more varieties and brands of instant noodles than before.
In addition to the old-fashioned Master Kong and Unity, there are also South Korean Nongxin Xin Ramen, Baijia, Hewei, Yangyang, Tangdaren and other brands. In terms of taste, many new products have appeared.
■ statement
Consumers only bring instant noodles when they travel
Regarding the purchase of instant noodles, the reporter randomly asked some citizens, and most of them said that on the one hand, due to the same practice for many years, they rarely buy instant noodles due to health reasons; on the other hand, instant noodles are being replaced by takeaway and self-heating food.
"Now there is almost no need to buy instant noodles. Even if you want to have supper in the middle of the night, you can order food online, it is more convenient to deliver it to your home, and the taste is more moisturizing than instant noodles." One young man said he had indeed not bought instant noodles for a long time.
An aunt told reporters that for health reasons, she also reminds her children to eat less convenience food. However, every time she goes out, she still has to prepare some instant noodles to satisfy her hunger during the journey.
expert
The instant noodle market is not going away
Although the instant noodle industry has innovative products and flavors, it is still unable to fundamentally stop the impact of online takeout on the instant noodle market.
Professor Shen Hongbing of the School of Economics and Trade of Chongqing Technology and Business University believes that with the development of the Internet, the rise of takeout is inevitable, which reflects people’s higher requirements for quality of life and greater emphasis on health and nutrition.
Instant noodles have been popular for decades, but the production technology content of the industry itself is not high. However, big brands will still have a relative market, and the market structure will still be relatively stable.
"In the future, the market share of instant noodles will shrink greatly, but it will not disappear."
He believes that the overall technological innovation, scale innovation, and brand innovation of the instant noodle industry are all difficult, but fast food and fast food cakes are expanding rapidly. Therefore, these instant noodle companies can explore a lot of innovation space in the fields of fast-moving consumer goods and snack foods, and there is still a large blue ocean waiting to be developed.
Our reporter, Xu Ju