Coronavirus tests China's appetite for food delivery

Despite turbulence, analysts remain optimistic about burgeoning market

20200401 China food delivery

A driver is handed takeaway food through the window of a restaurant in Beijing. The coronavirus outbreak has hit food delivery businesses © Reuters

COCO LIU, Nikkei staff writer

HONG KONG -- China's food delivery businesses are struggling to rebound from the country's coronavirus crisis as shuttered restaurants and sealed-off residential compounds add to customers' health risk concerns.

Huang Zhou, a hardworking entrepreneur in Guangzhou, in southern China, used to rely on meal deliveries every day. But as the novel coronavirus hit the country in late January, Huang switched to home cooking. Since then she has not ordered a single meal, even though China, by and large, has curbed domestic coronavirus infections.

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