the tidal wave of home delivery

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CHRONICLE OF SHANGHAI. The Covid-related confinements have accelerated the conversion of Chinese people to home meal delivery.

By Marie Fourier (in Shanghai)

Delivery men in a suburb of Shanghai.
© HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP

Published on 02/25/2023 at 2:00 p.m.
– Modified 02/25/2023 at 2:22 p.m.

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IThey color the streets blue and yellow. The daily deliverers are the guarantors of the growth of the lazy economy, as it is called. The blue and yellow are not a vibrant homage to Ukraine which, in Shanghai, seems far away from the banks of the Huangpu River. These are the colors of their respective parent companies. The sets of scooters, helmets, insulated bags and blue windbreakers are those of the deliverers of ele.me, a delivery service invested by Alibaba and now embedded in the Alipay mega-app. The yellow ones are those of Meituan, a home delivery giant, which also includes opinion sharing, a kind of mix between TripAdvisor or La Fourchette and Deliveroo. Launched in 2010, this other mega-app also allows you to order a car or reserve…