By Leslie Lim
Even the most die-hard kaki makan now think twice before heading out. In the early days of food delivery, many consumers had little hesitation in paying a slight premium for the convenience of having a meal delivered to their doorstep.
Today, that dynamic has completely changed. Aggressive platform promotions now often make it cheaper to order food online than to dine at the very same restaurant.
As a compromise, even passionate food lovers frequently opt for takeaway-friendly food that survives the transit, sacrificing the immediate quality of a freshly served dish.
Enticed by stacked app promotions, Buy 1 Free 1 offers and flash sales, many Malaysians are increasingly willing to trade the steaming freshness of a dine-in meal for the convenience of home delivery. Economic pragmatism has, in many cases, overtaken culinary preference.
We are, quite simply, spoilt for choice. Over the past few years, major F&B chains with deep pockets have invested heavily in digital promotions on food delivery platforms.
The convenience is so seamless that many consumers are increasingly choosing delivery over visits to their traditional neighbourhood favourites – the independent restaurants, the corner kopitiam and the kedai mamak.
Yet there is a more complex arithmetic behind this convenience. Participating merchants can face commission rates of about 30 per cent, alongside advertising, promotional and other platform fees needed to remain visible in an increasingly competitive digital marketplace.
The competitive landscape has also become increasingly concentrated. The Malaysia Competition Commission has stepped up its scrutiny of the digital economy, examining whether dominant platforms use commission structures, exclusive merchant arrangements and opaque algorithms in ways that may restrict competition or disadvantage smaller businesses.
While Parliament’s passage of the Competition (Amendment) Bill strengthens the regulator’s ability to address anti-competitive conduct, and the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living works on a new e-commerce framework to improve oversight of platform practices and fees, many small food businesses say the commercial pressures are already taking their toll.
For independent restaurants and traditional stall operators already grappling with rising operating costs, remaining competitive has become an increasingly difficult balancing act.
Like retailers on major online marketplaces, they must navigate rising costs while competing in a marketplace where visibility and promotions often come at a price.
Many are operating on exceptionally thin margins. In response, some businesses have reduced portion sizes, simplified recipes or adopted more cost-efficient preparation methods.
To cope with the sheer volume and speed required by app algorithms, the focus of delivering food has steadily shifted towards centralisation and mass-cooking preparations to leverage economies of scale, rather than individually prepared, made-to-order meals.
Greater reliance on processed ingredients or commercial pre-mixed spice pastes may help control costs and speed up assembly, but can also affect the flavour and authenticity that distinguish many traditional dishes.
It is not a surprise that many in the industry are looking towards Putrajaya’s promised regulatory reforms with cautious optimism.
The hope is that these new frameworks will establish meaningful guardrails – not only for the food delivery ecosystem, but across the wider e-commerce landscape – to promote fair competition while ensuring smaller businesses remain commercially viable.
Consumers will rightly continue to value the affordability and convenience that food delivery platforms provide.
Yet if the underlying commercial pressures remain unaddressed, the long-term cost may ultimately be borne by independent eateries, traditional cooking practices and, ultimately, Malaysia’s rich and diverse food heritage.
Leslie Lim is our regular contributing opinion writer
WE