– Word of mouth as a ‘reasonable place to buy in a recession’… Continued increase of nearly 10,000 new members every month
– Establishment of a virtuous cycle structure of ‘increase in number of stores → increase in members → increase in number of stores…’
Enterprise food tech company Marketboro (CEO Lim Sa-seong) announced on the 12th that the cumulative number of members of ‘Sikbom’, an open market for food ingredients for restaurants operated by the company, has surpassed 200,000. This means that 25% of the estimated 800,000 restaurants, cafes, and other food service businesses nationwide are using Sikbom as a place to purchase food ingredients.
The cumulative number of Sikbom members, which was 160,000 in December last year, has surpassed 200,000 in just four months, with a steady influx of nearly 10,000 new members every month. It seems that restaurant owners who are concerned about cost reduction due to the recent economic downturn, rising food prices, and the burden of delivery fees have chosen Sikbom as an alternative.
The Sikbom side explained, “The recent surge in members is due to the formation of a virtuous cycle in which the availability of various products leads to an increase in members, which in turn leads to an increase in the number of food material distributors.”
As of last month, the total number of food material distributors that entered Sikbom was 3,616, a 35% increase from the same period last year, and the number of products sold also increased by 32% to about 170,000. As the product line diversified and the distributors that entered expanded discount promotions, this is leading to the influx of more restaurant business members.
Beyond rocket delivery, the stable direct delivery system that puts food in restaurant refrigerators and the nationwide logistics network are also Sikbom's competitive edge. In fact, the number of new subscribers has been increasing rapidly since last year, especially in metropolitan cities such as Busan, Daegu, and Gwangju, and recently, the trend has continued to spread to Jeonbuk and Chungcheong regions.
Marketboro CEO Im Sa-seong said, “Customers who previously used Naver or Coupang are quickly moving to Sikbom by providing price comparisons for 170,000 food ingredients, various purchasing benefits, and direct delivery services,” and added, “In the future, we will operate specialty stores for vegetables, livestock, and fishery products so that customers who used to purchase fresh food directly from grocery stores can purchase it more conveniently and at lower prices through Sikbom.”
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