Singapore – In one of Asia’s largest virtual brands partnership, online food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda and Indian restaurant company Rebel Foods have partnered to roll out Rebel Foods’ flagship brands and new jointly-created offerings in more than 2,000 outlets within Asia through an initial five-year partnership, starting in six markets.

Through the partnership, Rebel Foods will extend its culinary works, standard operating procedures and food tech innovations to F&B outlets in Asia through foodpanda. With a brands-as-a-service (BaaS) model, the partnership allows foodpanda’s restaurant partners to easily plug-and-play Rebel Foods iconic brands to grow additional revenue streams.

Meanwhile, foodpanda enables hundreds of thousands of restaurant partners and cloud kitchen operators to plug-and-play virtual brands into their current operations to grow additional revenue streams, at little to no start-up costs. 

“This foodpanda-Rebel Foods partnership introduces a new digital-first F&B format to Asia. foodpanda is always seeking new, innovative ways to change the way F&B businesses operate in a hyper-digitalised economy — we want to push our ecosystem further into the future,” said Pedram Assadi, COO at foodpanda.

He added, “Most importantly, these virtual brands will give our restaurant partners, especially SMEs, new opportunities to earn additional revenue.”

In the first phase of the partnership, which began in December 2019, Rebel Foods introduced four brands across six markets — Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines through the foodpanda network.

“Over the years, we have built some category leading brands in its current markets and a full-stack operating system which integrates culinary expertise, efficient SOPs and technological innovations together. We are glad to partner with foodpanda and scale our iconic brands with localized offerings across their network in Asia”, said Kallol Banerjee, co-founder at Rebel Foods.

Singapore – ONE Esports, the esports media company, has partnered with top online food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda, to create a new multi-part docuseries on esports called ‘Heroes of the Game’, which tackles the ‘ONE Esports Dota 2 Singapore Major’ event held in March this year.

The new docuseries features exclusive never-before-seen footage, including behind-the-scenes strategies, victories, and secrets, as well as challenges that the esports heroes had to face during the tournament in the Dota 2 series. The two-part documentary follows three teams as they compete as the ONE Esports Dota 2 Singapore Major, namely Evil Geniuses, Fnatic, and OB Neon.

Moreover, the viewers will be getting a behind-the-scenes look from inside the ‘bubble’ at the Fairmont Hotel in Singapore. It includes exclusive interviews with players, coaches, and industry veterans telling the story of the highs and lows of their journey through the tournament, which had a prize pool of US$500k. 

ONE Esports said that the Singapore Major is one of two majors that enables teams to qualify for The International, which will be held in Romania in October 2021 with a prize pool of over US$40m.

Carlos Alimurung, ONE Esports’ CEO, commented that they are delighted to continue their partnership with foodpanda, and they are not only immortalizing the iconic ONE Esports Dota 2 Singapore Major in film through the docuseries but also giving viewers an inside look at what it takes to compete at the highest level of esports. 

“Ultimately, compelling storytelling is the key to opening esports up to a wider audience and enabling them to appreciate the diligence, uniqueness, and achievements of its athletes. Heroes of the Game is a perfect example of this effort to broaden the appeal of the sport,” said Alimurung.

Idan Haim, foodpanda’s vice president of growth and marketing, said, “We are thrilled to be teaming up with ONE Esports to connect with foodpanda users in the esports arena. As Asia’s largest food and grocery delivery platform, we are the go-to partner for gamers to refuel with their favorite food and snacks, delivered straight to their doorsteps.”

The docuseries has already been released on ONE Esports’ social channels including Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube, and will soon be premiering on regional broadcast channels including eGG Network, One Sports Philippines, PPTV HD36 Thailand, and Astro, as well as RTM Sports Malaysia, and Eleven Sports Taiwan.

Manila, Philippines – Through time, the use of social media is becoming more intertwined into people’s daily lives, and is also becoming a major avenue for conversations that would benefit both consumers and brands.

On Twitter, whatever is happening, be it as grand as opening a new business or simple joys, people share it with their network, making the platform the go-to place to see the latest in culture and trends.

Research shows that there are five key trends on how Filipinos converse around food, beverages, and personal, as well as home care on Twitter. The first trend is around one’s creativity in the kitchen, which is the result of boredom of Filipinos amid the ongoing pandemic. 

Cooking and baking have become creative outlets for new skills, and part of the people’s routine is to tweet their creations, sharing their trusted food brands and their favorite marketplace. The data from Twitter also shows that Filipinos’ most mentioned retailer for packaged food is foodpanda Philippines.

Next on the list is Filipinos’ love for coffee. Conversations about this much-loved drink continue to grow on Twitter Philippines, increasing 3% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, as cafes enticed people to look for innovative ways to make a statement with coffee. And with this, Robinsons Supermarket topped the list as the most talked about beverage retailer for Filipinos on Twitter.

Filipinos also tweet about pop culture on Twitter, which helped increase the conversation interestingly around hair care. There’s a 15% increase in the tweet volume on hair care for the first quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, as they actively pay attention and discuss the latest hairstyles or colors being sported by their favorite idols. This made Watsons Philippines rank first as the top mentioned hair care retailer among Filipinos in the platform.

Meanwhile, Filipinos gained a new perspective on self-care during the pandemic, building up their skincare routine and Twitter has also become the top-of-mind platform to look for suggestions and tips. More than 12% in April 2021of tweets are related to personal and skincare compared to May 2021. Part of this growth is the equally progressing conversation on tackling unrealistic beauty standards. Twitter revealed that Shopee Philippines is the most talked about among retailers and providers of self-care products.

And lastly, Filipinos were found to grow fondness for tweeting about being at home, making them more attentive to their own space. As the pandemic continues, people have grown interested in home improvement to keep their homes safe and clean. They can be seen sharing their aesthetic home buys, which is mainly from Lazada Philippines, therefore ranking first as the most mentioned retailer of home care products.

Chandan Deep, Twitter’s head of emerging business for SEA, shared that people on the app and the conversations that they create are what makes Twitter unique, and 71% have rated it as a great platform for brand interaction, making it the number one among its peers.

“These people lead the conversation and are passionate to share about diverse topics such as beauty, food, and health. What makes them powerful as consumers is that they try, buy, and share their experience on Twitter,” said Deep.

For the month of July, the Southeast Asia region once again snitches the spotlight with stories ranging from K-pop research, a fast-food chain’s case study, to an app that aims to cater to a country’s long-standing culture in trading. 

This period, we see a very interesting study that has put an official percentage of how much a brand can benefit from web searches upon roping in K-pop group BTS as an endorser. Food delivery is also a highlight this month, with a leading food delivery platform in Asia launching a new offer, and a fast-food brand in Malaysia releasing its case study on a successful 2020 campaign that helped save its delivery business in the face of home cooking-loving consumers. 

In the Philippines, we see a live-streaming platform unveiling an ex-Gojek exec as one of its new heads, and from the same country as well as a top story on a commerce enabler that aims to bring digitization to a traditional type of minimart that has been around in the country for years. 

With rankings based on Google Analytics for the period of 16th June to 15th July, here are the brands that had you turning with a second look.

Top 5: BTS ambassadorships can boost brand searches by up to 50%, iPrice study shows

Celebrities have undoubtedly been the primary faces of brands, and the new wave of K-pop groups and personalities have just turned to be the novel key to impactfully lift their awareness among consumers. In particular, global superstars BTS; In their multiple stints as global and regional ambassadors, it is no wonder how the latest data from e-commerce aggregator iPrice shows the sheer impact BTS can have on brands when tapping the group as their brand ambassadors.

According to their data, search results for brands can jump up to 50% after signing on BTS as their ambassador, which has long been evident across brands three years ago when the prominence of K-pop brand ambassadors started to materialize.

Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Isabelle Romualdez, senior content marketing executive at iPrice stated that such affiliation can drive up web traffic of the websites of these brands, which can eventually help drive up their sales online. 

She also added that ‘BTS’ influence is so strong that they create a lot of ‘noise’ on social media.’

Citing the campaign for global fast-food chain McDonald’s, for instance, she notes that in Vietnam, the fast-food chain was able to sell 10,000 BTS Meals in one day, and that in the Philippines, they were able to sell 3.5 million pieces of chicken nuggets on the day of the launch.

The best possible outcome for brands which I think is also how BTS affects them is that their partnership [with them] can increase their sales. BTS fans are really devoted, they really spend on their merch. They spend around US$1,400 for their merch, tickets, and other things. And so for them to line up and spend for a special meal or product, it’s really no big deal for them.

Asked about what smaller brands can do who might not be able to afford to partner K-pop personalities, she states this:

“One of the challenges for these smaller brands is that they can’t afford big brand ambassadors, so they have this responsibility to be creative with their campaigns but they can still achieve as much success if they create creative campaigns. Another way is to create content that interests the K-pop fanbase, [such as] talking about their behavior.”

Top 4: Former Gojek growth leader Crystal Widjaja joins kumu as new chief product officer

Filipino live-streaming platform, kumu, has appointed the former chief of staff and senior vice president of growth at Indonesia’s Gojek, Crystal Widjaja, to now assume the role of chief product officer.

MARKETECH APAC conversed with Widjaja to know more about what kumu products she is looking to develop and prioritize.

“We need to start building out products that really do unlock experiences, better than online and offline experiences,” said Widjaja in the interview.

Widjaja shared that the platform will be developing its creator base, building out the best creator tools so that content creators can host game shows, create amazing vlogs, and have fun, among others.

“I think what’s really important is to actually build an enablement platform, where people who want to be a community builder and to engage one another have the tools and [apps] to do that,” she said.

The core of kumu is beyond just a social network for content creators. It really is a social participatory network, and that means we are highly engaging and we allow users to reward one another.

Widjaja will be leveraging her extensive experience in helping startups with growth, data, and strategy, as well as bolstering the platform’s overall product strategy. 

In the same interview, Widjaja bared that building kumu has always been about creating opportunities for people to create their small social spaces and a safe environment, one where they can be themselves with people they admire.

Top 3: KFC turned every Malaysian Kitchen into a KEPCI Kitchen

At the start of the Covid in 2020, fast food brand KFC in Malaysia was faced with a dilemma – how does it maintain its delivery business, when consumers, even despite its initial surge, had easily grown tired of ordering take-out? In trying to find a solution, KFC soon found it was not other QSR brands that were the enemy, but the newfound love of home cooking. 

In partnership with digital creative agency Reprise, KFC released the campaign KEPCI Kitchen based on this insight, and turned the present trend in their favor – building the excitement of Malaysians to repurpose KFC items in their personal recipes, and therefore, turning their kitchen into a KEPCI kitchen. 

Due to a highly engaging integrated campaign which included a dedicated ‘KFC’ cookbook, consistent recipe sharing on Instagram, and also a sponsored cooking show, the campaign soon achieved its target and even more. 

In an exclusive chat with KFC Malaysia’s CEO Chan May Ling and Reprise’s Creative Director Eddy Nazarullah, the two both chalked it up to great teamwork and relationship between the brand and agency. 

“I think the lovely thing about this case study, I think, is the client-agency partnership, and how fast the team reacted because nobody knew how to react during a lockdown,” Chan said.

“[We’re] very close to our agency partner to uncover the insight and to have a common agreement on how we want to build the brand, and how we want to engage, and I think that’s very important in a relationship; and that’s how it sparked,” she added.

I think what’s key is the collaboration between KFC and [Reprise]. It’s the agency and client relationship that’s definitely made this happen. For us to achieve this, it’s definitely something we can’t do alone, and we definitely need the support from the team.

Nazarullah echoing Chan’s statement

Top 2: PH commerce enabler GrowSari secures US$30m funding for operation expansion

Philippine-borne business-to-business commerce enabler GrowSari has announced that the company has secured more than US$30m in funding from various companies and venture capitals, which include Gokongwei-led listed Philippine retailer Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) and JG Digital Equity Ventures, as well as Wavemaker Partners.

Other funding participants include Pavilion Capital, Tencent, Saison Capital, ICCP SBI Venture Partners, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which is a member of the World Bank Group.

For GrowSari, said funding will help fuel the company’s vision of tapping into sari-sari stores, the Filipino version of neighborhood mom-and-pop stores, which according to GrowSari, has the potential to be the biggest and most accessible distribution channel in the Philippines through driving efficiencies in route planning while collecting valuable insights on store behavior.

In an interview with MARKETECH APAC, Maimai Punzalan, chief marketing officer at GrowSari stated aside from creating more offerings and establishing bigger suppliers and market supply for their clients, they envision expanding from their current 50,000 store base across 100 municipalities in mainland Luzon to around 300,000 store bases in the next two years.

She also added that as they started GrowSari in the first place, there were two things that they needed to address in order to aid these sari-sari store owners: access to affordable goods and assortment of goods, ranging from dry goods to basic necessities. Such aspirations stem from the company’s observation of the current status quo of these local neighborhood stores in the country.

We recognize that the sari-sari store segment is such, maybe an underserved channel for the Philippines, despite it’s serving [about] 84% of Filipinos [who] would shop in a sari-sari store, and it makes it relevant for all of the Filipinos out there. There are about 1 million sari-sari stores spread across the archipelago. I think what’s tough for them though is despite being so important to the lives of the Filipino people, they’re barely making enough really to keep running their business.

GrowSari outfits Philippine sari-sari store owners with inventory, infrastructure, and tools to manage and grow their business while generating crucial data and market insights for manufacturers and distributors.

Top 1: foodpanda ties up with Unilever to now deliver on-demand ice cream products

For our top story for the month, we have the leading food delivery platform in Asia, foodpanda, and its recent partnership with Unilever. The digital change for all economies continues to accelerate, especially now that new consumers migrate online for shopping due to the pandemic, and with this, quick-commerce – the super fast delivery of anything to customers in under one hour or often much faster – is becoming the standard of service.

Unilever and foodpanda’s team-up is aimed at offering 24/7 on-demand ice cream deliveries through foodpanda shops and pandamart – foodpanda’s cloud grocery network. This move targets to reach a wider customer base via foodpanda’s q-commerce across Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, as well as Pakistan, and the Philippines.

Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Abhishek Sahay, foodpanda’s senior director of new business, said, “We did find speed as one of the customer insights that [really] people want, and it wasn’t just food deliveries but in every aspect of life. They are becoming much more used to on-demand stuff.”

He adds that the intention behind q-commerce is to provide speed and choice for customers.

Aside from delivering a variety of ice cream, the partnership also includes new product launches, bundle deals, and promotional campaigns, as well as optimized digital advertising and customer engagement on the platform, such as strategic placements of digital banners on the platform, the creative use of in-app notifications, and campaigns on social media.

We are no longer just a food delivery company. We are expanding into new verticals. In terms of future plans, we definitely have a long way to go, specifically on quick commerce. And as we think of expansion, we have three different ways. One is we want more and more stores. Secondly, we think of new country expansion, launching in Japan, Cambodia, and Myanmar. And the third is category expansion,” said Sahay, regarding foodpanda’s future plans.

Watch our live interviews with the newsmakers themselves on the latest episode of MARKETECH APAC Reports, live on our YouTube channel.

This is in collaboration with Malaysia-based media company The Full Frontal.

Singapore – Unilever and foodpanda have partnered to now provide 24/7 on-demand ice cream deliveries through its cloud grocery network pandamart and foodpanda shops. 

Through the partnership, Unilever will be leveraging foodpanda’s quick-commerce tech infrastructure and extensive logistics network to reach a wider customer base in the region, delivering more than 20 varieties of Ben & Jerry, Magnum, and Wall’s ice cream products across Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, as well as Pakistan, and the Philippines. 

Furthermore, foodpanda and Unilever will collaborate on new product launches, bundle deals, and promotional campaigns for customers. They will also be working on optimizing digital advertising and customer engagement on the platform, which includes strategic placements of digital banners on the platform, the creative use of in-app notifications, and campaigns on social media to grow and deepen engagement with digitally savvy customers in Asia. 

Unilever’s Chief Delivery Officer Sapan Sharma said, “Our partnership with foodpanda helps us serve consumers by delivering smiles to their doorsteps in less than 25 minutes! In times like these, our partnership helps us spread happiness to customers all around Asia.”

Meanwhile, Abhishek Sahay, the senior director of new business at foodpanda, commented that they are thrilled about this opportunity to be chosen by Unilever as a delivery partner. 

“As customers increasingly turn to foodpanda for their daily needs, we continue to invest in our technology and q-commerce network to grow our daily offerings with both big and small retail partners,” said Sahay. 

From mid-June 2021, in order to show their appreciation to riders, foodpanda and Unilever will also be distributing over 20,000 ice-cream products to riders in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, as a free ice cream treat.

Taiwan – Top food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda has announced the opening of its new tech hub in Taiwan to scale up product innovation and platform optimization, as it continues to expand and grow across Asia.

According to data from INS Consulting, Taiwan sees more than 10,000 computer science graduates join the workforce each year making it an ideal center for the launch of a new tech hub. With this, foodpanda has decided to house new Taiwan-based engineering and product teams, and recruitment has already begun for key department roles, including digital innovation supervisors and front and back-end engineers. 

The new tech hub is part of the platform’s NT$610M investment plans for its food delivery business in the market, which was first announced earlier this year. It is slated to begin operations in the second half of 2021, with a focus on R&D in new technologies and enhancements to build a seamless user experience across its mobile and web applications.

Benjamin Mann, the chief technology officer of foodpanda, said that they are excited to launch the new tech hub in Taiwan, as an important base for data analysis and technology development in the food and grocery delivery space. 

“The Taiwan tech hub will offer an exciting opportunity for Taiwan-based tech and engineering talents to be a part of a leading, high-growth digital platform in Asia. We want to not only invest in the growing tech talent pool in Taiwan but also invest in the tech capabilities to support foodpanda’s growth across the region,” said Mann.

The launch of foodpanda’s new tech hub in the country comes after an exponential 2020 growth, as more riders, merchant-partners, and customers turn to online for food and daily essentials. Currently, foodpanda is operating in over 400 cities across 12 markets in Asia.

Singapore – Food delivery platform foodpanda has partnered with food technology company Eat Just to initiate the first-ever home delivery of cultured meat in Singapore as part of the celebration of Earth Day this year.

For a limited time, diners will be able to place orders for the following chef-crafted GOOD Meat Cultured Chicken dishes via the foodpanda app: Chicken & Rice with coconut rice, pak choi, sweet chili, chrysanthemums, microgreens; Katsu Chicken Curry with jasmine rice, heritage carrots, micro shiso, edible flowers; and Chicken Caesar Salad with kalee, romaine, edible flowers, shaved radish, plant-based Caesar dressing.

All of these cultured meat delivery offerings were made by 1880, the first establishment chosen by foodpanda to serve cultured meat to customers, and will now be the first to have GOOD Meat dishes delivered by foodpanda. GOOD Meat and foodpanda plan to collaborate with additional restaurants in Singapore to offer new dishes for delivery in the months to come.

According to Jakob Angele, CEO at foodpanda, they expect that this trend of sustainable food options will continue as they have seen a spike in demand during the pandemic.

“Sustainability is high on the agenda for foodpanda, and we will continue working closely with green F&B and retail partners to help them reach more customers via our platform, at the same time provide greener varieties for our customers,” Angele stated.

Meanwhile, Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO at Eat Just, commented, “Bringing GOOD Meat directly to the homes of people in Singapore with foodpanda is another historically important step in our journey to build a safer, healthier food system.”

The partnership bolsters not just the commitment of Eat Just and foodpanda in furthering the progress of food sustainability, but also that of foodpanda’s parent company Delivery Hero. Delivery Hero’s venture capital fund, DX ventures, is currently an investor in Eat Just – a testament of the organization’s collective commitment to creating and promoting a sustainable food ecosystem.

Foodpanda has been active in terms of partnering with sustainability-related organizations, such as Singapore-based blog-turned-online-shop The Sustainability Project, Taiwanese local health chain Cotton Field Organic, Malaysian eco-friendly supermarket chain Village Grocer, and Hong Kong zero waste store Slowood.

Singapore – Food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda has announced that it will be rolling its vaccination awareness campaign across its key markets in Asia, which lines up with the upcoming World Health Organisation’s World Immunization Week from 24 to 30 April 2021.

The campaign focuses on a series of content which will be shared through digital and social media channels that provides useful information and resources on local vaccination programs, tips on identifying vaccination misinformation and reminders on COVID-19 safeguards. Foodpanda is also supporting local vaccination programs in Singapore, Cambodia and the Philippines. 

In the Philippines, foodpanda will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Health in April 2021 to combat vaccine misinformation by creating correct information materials targeted for riders, consumers and partner vendors. Foodpanda Philippines is also supporting the ‘IngatAngat’ vaccine information awareness campaign by the local T3 Task Force, composed of government and private sector members to encourage vaccinations.

Meanwhile, foodpanda Cambodia, throughout the month of April, is supporting and showing appreciation to frontliners, by donating food and drinks to four major hospitals and vaccination centres. Foodpanda Cambodia is also working with local authorities to get employees and delivery riders vaccinated. 

In Singapore, foodpanda is working with the Ministry of Health to ensure that its rider partners are vaccinated, while exploring collaborations with local authorities on initiatives to help raise public awareness about vaccines.

Other initiatives include virtual onboarding, fee waivers, and support initiatives for merchants to join the platform quickly and seamlessly. Foodpanda has also allowed more riders to join the network and making food, groceries, and daily essentials available for safe and convenient doorstep delivery, made contactless by default to minimize direct contact and protect the health and safety of customers, riders and merchants

According to Jakob Angele, CEO of foodpanda, the campaign is the company’s objective in spreading the message of being vigilant on keeping our ecosystem safe.

“Leveraging existing channels with our network of riders, merchants, employees and customers, we can raise greater awareness around fighting misinformation and share information around local vaccination programmes, so that our entire delivery ecosystem can be informed and mobilised. We will continuously explore ways to play a part in the fight against COVID-19,” Angele said.

The new campaign comes after foodpanda has recently revamped their brand identity across Asia.

Foodpanda’s campaign will be rolled out in phases across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Japan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Singapore – Food and grocery delivery platform foodpanda has announced a revamp to its brand identity across Asia, spanning 400 cities and 12 markets.

The brand identity revamp accentuates foodpanda’s brand color pink across its visual designs, which is also enhanced alongside the prominence of the signature panda logo.

The same visual approach applies to foodpanda’s marketing initiatives both online and offline, for instance with rider- and partner-related branding, foodpanda retains its bold, instantly identifiable ‘fun pink’, but expands its palette to include more complementary colors.

According to Reinald Chee, head of creative at foodpanda, the emphasis on the color pink is rooted in the company’s desire to keep the brand color recognizable by millions of customers across Asia. Furthermore, Chee added that the brand revamp highlights the various personalities of the brand: “friendly, caring, smart, and that little bit rebellious – not afraid to change the status quo or take risks.”

“Our aim has been to create a design language that’s as seamless as our transaction process. At the end of the day, brand identity is all about making a more enjoyable experience for everyone,” Chee stated.

Meanwhile, Idan Haim, vice president of growth and marketing at foodpanda hopes that the brand revamp will help build a solid foundation of the company in terms of customer experience.

“Foodpanda’s refreshed identity reconsiders all customer touchpoints with the brand, connecting the technology behind our app and website with our millions of users’ everyday experiences, from our iconic rider bags and jackets to packaging, marketing campaigns and the app itself,” Haim stated.

Foodpanda-Brand-Identity-Revamp-Asia-2

Aside from the brand identity, foodpanda has also revamped its user interface homescreen, dubbed the ‘bento’. The new interface allows users to seamlessly choose the foodpanda service they need – food delivery, self pick-up, shops or pandamart – while making it easier to explore top restaurants and promotions available in their location.

The brand refresh comes at a time when foodpanda continues to expand its business verticals beyond food delivery, into quick commerce (q-commerce), including grocery delivery via pandamart cloud stores, and through partnerships with leading shops and convenience stores.

“We analyzed every touchpoint with our service, from the app to the rider box. Using thorough insights about the user journey, we envisioned a design direction that could bridge the gap between our tech and the real-life experience of millions of customers,” Chee added.

Foodpanda’s brand refresh will be progressively introduced across all online and offline platforms from April 2021. The refresh has started in Singapore, Bangladesh and Cambodia, and will be launching in Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand in the coming weeks.

Manila, Philippines – A good news for foodpanda users in the Philippines – its premium subscription service pandpro is now available in the country. 

Accordion to a report by Noypigeeks, the pro membership has already been rolled out in late October, with foodpanda only releasing its official promotions Sunday morning.

For a monthly subscription fee, users are granted three main benefits – free delivery, additional discounts, and more vouchers. 

For a minimum order of P400, foodpanda will be waving users’ delivery charge for the first five orders of the month. With discounts, members will be getting an unlimited extra 5% off of pick-up orders, albeit, not to be topped up on an existing promo. Meanwhile, the subscription also provides three additional 10% discount vouchers. 

The free delivery feature is applicable to all restaurants and shops. In addition, pandapro members will be able to receive other exclusive discounts of 20% and up. Both the subscription and application of benefits are available only through the mobile app.

Pandapro has been earlier rolled out in other Southeast Asia countries, such as in Singapore in February of this year.