Thai food delivery apps struggle to survive cutthroat market

Local player Robinhood to close as consumers return to their pre-COVID routines

Ronald McDonald watches a delivery driver pick up an order in Bangkok, Thailand. As Grab and LINEMAN fight for survival, other players call it quits. © Getty Images

APORNRATH PHOONPHONGPHIPHAT, Nikkei staff writer

July 16, 2024 12:06 JST

BANGKOK -- A rising Thai food delivery star during the lockdown days has become the latest casualty of a fiercely competitive market into which other former rivals have already flushed billions of baht in cumulative losses.

Robinhood, which shot to fame after winning a funding deal from Siam Commercial Bank, has issued a statement announcing it will officially shut down on July 31, sunk by a cumulative loss of more than 5 billion baht ($140 million).