A deliveryman for Meituan-Dianping, China's largest on-demand service platform, delivers food in Beijing. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
The volume of China's online food ordering and delivery market hit 441.5 billion yuan ($65.8 billion) in 2018, up 112.5 percent year-on-year, according to an industry report.
The number of online orders for meals, snacks, vegetables, fruits and drinks reached 10.96 billion, which nearly doubles year-on-year, according to the report issued by Analysys, an internet data analysis service provider.
The report predicted that the market will continue to expand in the next three years to reach 934 billion yuan in 2021.
Ele.me and Meituan remain the largest players in the industry, with China's ride-hailing company Didi entering the market in 2018, the report noted.
Monthly active users of the delivery apps have kept rising in 2018, with the number reaching over 102.8 million in December.
The data of the report was obtained from company interviews, public information, and monitoring data on apps.
