President Lee: "Delivery Apps Are Effectively an Oligopoly... Public Apps Must Be Integrated to Create Real Competition"

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Public Delivery Ap

President Lee Jae-myung addressed the issue of high commission fees on food delivery platforms, diagnosing the food delivery app market as being in a de facto oligopoly. He emphasized that relying solely on the Fair Trade Commission for regulation is not enough and instructed to expand public delivery apps to create a practical competitor capable of contending with large private platforms. The government announced a plan to focus support on competitive public delivery apps currently operating nationwide, aiming to increase their market share to 15–20% and to establish an integrated public platform over the long term.

President Lee Jae-myung is speaking at the Cabinet meeting held at the Blue House on the 25th. August 25, 2026. [Photo by Cheongwadae News Photography Team] Yonhap News

During the Cabinet meeting held at the Blue House on August 25, after being briefed on the government’s follow-up actions to the business report, President Lee raised the delivery app issue as a separate agenda item. President Lee stated, “There is a problem with food delivery app commissions being excessively high, and we need to consider possible alternatives. The Fair Trade Commission exerting pressure alone will not solve the issue—though it is one approach—but we must at a minimum establish a system of real competition.” He pointed out that the delivery platform market “appears to be in a de facto monopoly.”

The government also explained that the market concentration level is already significant. During the meeting, officials referenced the 2020 conditional approval by the Fair Trade Commission that allowed Germany’s Delivery Hero to acquire Baemin (Baedal Minjok) on the condition of divesting Yogiyo, and noted that with the subsequent growth of Coupang Eats, the combined market share of Baemin and Coupang Eats has now reached approximately 93%.

Nam Dong-il, Vice Chair of the Fair Trade Commission, commented, “It can be viewed as a solidified duopoly between the two companies.” President Lee agreed, stating, “In practical terms, it is an oligopoly—a very strong oligopoly at that. As a result, many self-employed business owners are voicing concerns over their increasing burden from delivery fees.”

Vice Minister of SMEs and Startups Lee Byung-kwon reported plans to use next year’s government budget to foster public delivery apps intensively. Vice Minister Lee said, “Food delivery platforms are inherently inclined toward monopoly and oligopoly. We are planning support programs to raise public delivery apps’ market share to 15–20% by supporting apps with a public focus.”

Currently, around 12 public delivery apps are either operated or supported by local governments nationwide. The government is considering a plan to focus marketing and other support on about three of these apps that have demonstrated relatively strong performance. Rather than indiscriminately funding all public delivery app platforms, the intention is to select competitive ones and scale them up.

President Lee further instructed that, before expanding financial support, the focus must be on addressing the fragmented structure of public delivery apps. He noted that while some local governments operate their own public delivery apps successfully, “in reality, inefficiency is high.” He added, “It is necessary to provide funding through support, but an even greater priority is to integrate their operations.”

He continued, “Local governments are not operating these apps to make a profit or exercise personnel authority. It is necessary for similar platforms to either form alliances or be consolidated at the metropolitan level so that the apps can be universally integrated and receive support that is permissible under relevant laws and international agreements—enabling them to compete effectively.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.