China’s economy is on the decline, with a soaring unemployment rate leading to more middle-class individuals falling into poverty and joining the ranks of food delivery drivers. Tragic stories of these delivery drivers can be found online, painting a grim picture of their experiences. Despite this, Chinese state media boasts that China has become the world’s largest food delivery market, with over 80 million orders placed nationwide daily, while glorifying the work of delivery drivers and brushing aside their hardships.
The latest data from the Chinese Internet Network Information Center reveals that the scale of online food delivery users in China has reached 545 million, accounting for about fifty percent of the overall internet users – a figure far exceeding that of other countries.
According to a report by Xinhua News Agency, the China Hotel Association’s data shows that in 2023, the size of the food delivery market in China was about 1.2 trillion yuan, accounting for 22.6% of total catering revenue, with an average daily expenditure on food delivery reaching nearly 3.3 billion yuan.
Reports indicate that the food delivery industry in mainland China now averages 38,000 yuan in transactions per second, fulfilling 56,000 orders per minute, with over 300,000 delivery drivers on the road every hour. In 2023, the number of instant delivery personnel in China reached 10 million, with an annual growth rate of about 23%. Currently, the country’s 10 million delivery drivers collectively fulfill more than 80 million orders per day.
It is mentioned that over seventy percent of food delivery drivers work part-time, with many juggling delivery gigs while searching for other employment opportunities.
State media has praised the food delivery industry, referring to its rapid growth, associated consumption exceeding trillions of yuan, creation of unprecedented miracles, and stable economic growth providing a solid foundation for the industry.
However, what’s not mentioned by Chinese state media is that due to the poor economy, many individuals in major Chinese cities delivering food or driving ride-hailing cars are formerly middle-class citizens who have fallen on hard times, as well as recent university graduates struggling to secure jobs.
Official sources indicate that in just one city, Hefei, the number of registered ride-hailing drivers has exceeded 100,000, yet the idle rate of these vehicles is over 45%. In Beijing, the number of food delivery personnel in the first half of last year increased a staggering 49.7% compared to the previous year, while profits in the catering industry dropped by nearly ninety percent.
A substantial number of China’s unemployed population rely on “flexible employment” such as odd jobs to make ends meet, with food delivery being a prevalent form of such employment. Media reports have shown instances where aviation professionals who were not paid turned to food delivery and other odd jobs to make a living.
In a previous report by Dajiyuan, a food delivery driver named Sun Jiayu (pseudonym) in her thirties, originally from Shandong Province, came to Beijing alone to work in the food delivery sector after divorcing her husband nine years ago. To support her daughter’s education and secure her own future, she’s had to work twelve hours a day diligently.
She revealed that the food delivery sector in Beijing is not as profitable as before, with monthly earnings dropping from over ten thousand yuan to only six to seven thousand yuan now. The number of food delivery personnel in Beijing has tripled, with many fresh graduates joining the food delivery teams, making the industry increasingly cutthroat.
On July 21, 2024, in Shanghai, two traffic police officers stopped a food delivery driver wearing a work uniform, seizing his phone and later attempting to confiscate his electric bike. The delivery driver pushed one officer to the ground and exclaimed angrily, “Are you trying to force me to rebel? Are you pushing me?!”
On September 6, 2024, a food delivery driver in his fifties in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, suddenly passed away while sitting in his electric bike parked on the roadside. He was known to work rigorously, fulfilling hundreds of orders daily across two food delivery platforms, earning over five hundred yuan a day, being the “king of orders” in his area.
In October 2024, in Guangzhou, another food delivery driver collapsed while on a delivery.
Economic blogger and Weibo influencer “Meta Mama” expressed, “Who knows the struggles of the grassroots people? In the past driving motorbike taxis, there were rarely such tragic deaths.”
On the night of November 5, 2024, a food delivery driver in Shanghai, after being stopped by traffic police for a violation, knelt down and begged for leniency: “I implore you to spare me. I can’t survive at the bottom anymore.”
In December 2024, a female food delivery driver in Guangdong suddenly suffered a mental breakdown, reportedly due to being reported by a customer and having her vehicle confiscated by the police.
These scenes are not typically depicted in Chinese state media reports.