The Social Benefits Resulting from STOD Food Delivery Platforms: Focusing on the External Effects of Alddulbaedal

Purpose: This study is designed to examine the impact of digital technology for service differentiation on consumers and restaurants due to the growth of food delivery platforms and intensifying competition. Research design, data, and methodology: This study, we used consumer order data f rom W oowa B rothers. w hich p rovides the Baedal M injok service, t o examine consumers’ delivery tips and the impact on restaurant sales following the introduction of a new service, STOD (Stacking Owned Delivery). To this end, this study used the double Difference-in-Difference (DiD) method, a quasiexperimental design method, based on the collected data to analyze consumers’ delivery tip savings by using STOD, an AI-based delivery method. Additionally, changes in consumers’ order amounts after the introduction of economical delivery were analyzed using a transition matrix. Results: The net effect of delivery tip savings resulting from STOD for consumers exclusively using STOD was a decrease of 1,287.75 won per delivery order. The mixed effect was identified as 716.11 won. Lastly, the external effect attributed to STOD resulted in a reduction of 107.57 won in delivery tips per order. Based on this, the estimated annual savings in consumer delivery tips amount to approximately 128.4 billion won. Moreover, consumers in the bottom quintile before the introduction of STOD were more likely to transition to the top quintile by reducing delivery tips due to STOD. Implications: The results of this study contribute theoretically to research on competitive strategies of food delivery platforms. From a practical perspective, this study is significant in that it quantifies the benefits provided to consumers and businesses through innovative services utilizing digital technology and evaluates the resulting social impact.