The snag in HappyFresh's pursuit of happiness

Southeast Asia’s only pure online grocery platform has profited from the pandemic, with orders growing 3X-5X in Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. It’s now back in expansion mode after years of cautious growth, but everyone’s eyes are now on grocery delivery

HappyFresh is a supermarket and specialty stores aggregator, with partners like AEON, Giant, Lotte Mart, Big C, and Tesco Lotus

Its online traffic grew 10-15X during the first few months of the pandemic, as lockdowns forced consumers to order groceries online

Momentum in its favour, HappyFresh wants to re-enter the Philippines, which it exited in 2016, and expand to Vietnam

But deep-pocketed rivals are converging on its business and it must prove 2020 was no fluke

If anything, HappyFresh will hope its second stint in the Philippines lasts longer than its first. The Indonesia-headquartered online grocery platform couldn’t stick it out for more than six months when it first set foot in the country in 2015. It just couldn’t keep up with its rival Honestbee.

But there’ll be no repeat in 2021, when HappyFresh gives it another shot. For one, Honestbee doesn’t exist anymore. In July 2020, Singapore’s High Court issued issued DealStreetAsia Honestbee hit with winding-up order from Singapore High Court Read more a winding-up order against the Singapore-headquartered online grocer, leaving HappyFresh to enjoy a period of unprecedented growth almost all by itself.

AUTHOR

Jon Russell

Jon Russell is Southeast Asia editor for The Ken based in Bangkok. Originally from the UK, Jon moved to Thailand in 2008. He’s passionate about telling thoughtful business stories, and tracking the impact of the internet in his adopted home of Southeast Asia.

View Full Profile

AUTHOR

Yunindita Prasidya

Based in Indonesia, Dita is passionate about tracking the country’s growing digital economy. Her coverage is sector-agnostic—she has written about e-commerce, edtech, fintech, venture capital, and publicly-listed companies, as well as stories on careers and workplaces. She was previously a business journalist covering banking and the stock market at The Jakarta Post, Indonesia’s leading English daily.

View Full Profile

Others tell you what. We tell you the ‘So What?’

Read articles that decode the most significant shifts happening around business, technology, startups and healthcare. 1000+ articles for subscribers of the India edition. 150+ articles for subscribers of the Southeast Asia edition. Plus premium newsletters that help you make sense of the world around you.

So much journalism in India is superficial.

Articles are generic, almost cookie-cutter in their approach. And they don’t provide enough context on the issues they cover. The Ken is different. I don’t always agree with everything they say but I appreciate their commitment to publishing deeply reported narratives and investigations. Their reporters find new ways to analyze tech among other industries. And that’s always worth a read.

Sid Talwar / Co-Founder and Partner / Lightbox Venture Capital

As entrepreneurs, we thrive on being in the know at all times.

A personal subscription to The Ken was a no brainer. But as startup founders, this isn't enough. Team members also need to be in the know, for everyone handles customer-facing responsibilities and an ecosystem change that impacts customers also impacts us

Kiran Jonnalagadda / Co-founder / HasGeek and Internet Freedom Foundation