Restaurant Brands Bolster Proprietary Apps to Ease Delivery Fee Burden, but Struggle to Attract Users

Despite Membership Program Changes and Proprietary App Promotions,
Keeping Up With Delivery App Growth Remains Out of Reach

Although the restaurant franchise industry is working to strengthen its own applications (apps), it is still unable to catch up with the rapid growth of delivery apps. In response to the burden of commission fees charged by delivery platforms, these companies are restructuring their membership systems and ramping up promotions. However, it remains difficult to attract consumers, which is increasing concerns within the industry.

Even the Top 11 Burger, Chicken, and Pizza Chains Combined... Only 24% of the Delivery App Market

As of September 2, 2026, Mobile Index, a data analytics solution by IGAWorks, calculated the monthly average number of monthly active users (MAU) for major domestic burger, chicken, and pizza restaurants and their respective delivery platform apps. The combined monthly average MAU for 11 restaurant brands from January to July this year was approximately 9.81 million.

This figure represents just 23.7% of the combined MAU for the three major delivery apps (Baedal Minjok, Coupang Eats, and Yogiyo), which collectively had 41.42 million MAU. While this is a slight increase compared to 2024—when social concerns over delivery platform commission fees pushed the figure to 20.1%—the consensus remains that restaurant brands’ own apps are far from matching the influence of delivery platforms.

By sector, the combined MAU for six leading burger brands—McDonald's, Lotteria (Lotte Eats), Burger King, KFC, Mom's Touch, and No Brand Burger—was 7.59 million this year. The three major chicken chains (BHC, BBQ, and Kyochon Chicken) together posted 1.52 million MAU, while the two major pizza brands (Domino's Pizza and Papa John's) had 710,000 MAU. The brands with the highest monthly average MAU in their respective categories were Burger King (2.62 million), Kyochon Chicken (670,000), Domino's Pizza (580,000), and Baedal Minjok (23.91 million).

Baedal Minjok announced that the brokerage commission fee borne by restaurant owners will be raised from the existing 6.8% to 9.8% (excluding VAT) starting this August. On the 11th, a Baedal Minjok sticker was seen attached to a restaurant in Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

When looking at the increase in the monthly average MAU of in-house apps this year compared to 2024, the three chicken brands saw the largest growth at 55.0%, followed by the six burger brands at 38.8%, and the two pizza brands at 11.1%. This means that the number of consumers who accessed these apps at least once a month increased by that amount in the past two years. Among burger chains, Mom's Touch posted the highest MAU growth, while among chicken franchises it was BHC, and among pizza brands Papa John's experienced the greatest leap.

Thanks to their investment in enhancing their proprietary apps, restaurant businesses saw user numbers rise over the past two years; yet, delivery apps scaled up as well, with their MAU rising by 17.7% in the same period. Notably, the growth rate for proprietary chicken and burger app users outpaced that of the delivery apps.

Of all delivery apps, Coupang Eats saw the largest jump—increasing its monthly average MAU by 77.9% from 7.5 million in 2024 to 13.35 million this year over two years. In 2024, Coupang Eats rolled out unlimited free delivery for Wow members. Baedal Minjok, which boasts the largest user base among domestic delivery apps, saw its average monthly MAU rise by 7.8% to 23.91 million this year. Yogiyo was the only delivery app whose MAU decreased over the two-year span.

Delivery App Costs Hit Small Business Owners… "Hard to Invest, Lack of Resources"

Restaurant businesses are working to strengthen their in-house app services. They are reorganizing membership offerings and providing promotions for orders made through their proprietary apps. When launching new menu items, additional benefits are often given to those ordering through the company’s own app. The rationale is to reduce the significant commission burden imposed by delivery platforms by leveraging their own apps and to better secure customer data. Since the delivery commission issue became prominent in 2024, companies have focused on revamping mobile apps and beefing up membership programs.

Notably, burger, pizza, and chicken specialty franchises are classified as the restaurant businesses with the highest delivery app usage. According to the "2025 Restaurant Business Management Survey" by the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI), the delivery app usage rates for businesses similar to burger and pizza restaurants, and chicken specialty stores, stood at 86.2% and 74.5% respectively last year. Across the broader restaurant sector, delivery app usage was 30.0% last year—a 1.7 percentage point decrease from the previous year. This is attributed to increased price pressure from rising delivery app commission fees and a rise in dine-in and takeaway orders. Last year, the average monthly delivery app cost for restaurant operators was 358,000 won, up 18.1% (or 55,000 won) year-on-year.

Recently, intensifying competition among delivery apps has left small business owners unable to absorb these extra charges, resulting in the spread of "dual pricing," where food is priced higher on delivery apps compared to in-store menus. Many restaurant companies report that, when using their own apps, they do not incur delivery platform costs and thus offer the same prices for both in-store and delivery through their proprietary apps, aiming to attract more consumers this way.

However, because consumers continue to prefer delivery platforms, which make it easy to compare and order from various foods and brands, there are concerns about the limitations of growing proprietary apps even with intense promotions. An industry insider commented, "With the rising cost of raw materials and various management challenges, companies still have to focus on basics like new product development, marketing, and store operations. It's impossible for restaurant businesses to invest as heavily as delivery platforms, and they naturally have fewer resources for this."

Meanwhile, President Lee Jaemyung said at a cabinet meeting on July 25, "There are widespread complaints that delivery app commissions are too high," adding, "We must at least ensure fair competition, but I believe the current market is essentially a monopoly." In July, the combined transaction value for major domestic delivery apps surpassed 3.27 trillion won, marking an all-time high. By user numbers, Baedal Minjok and Coupang Eats dominate the market, with Yogiyo and Ttaenggyeoyo trailing behind.

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