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For whatever reason, there seems to be a food delivery bubble expanding nationwide. On top of existing incumbents such as Baidu Delivery, Meituan Delivery and ele.me (“Are you hungry”), along with your typical Pizzahut and KFC options, it’s becoming a crowded arena when you also add into the mix Line 0, our very own Nanjing-based food delivery service that is winning the hearts of many a lady.

Line Zero is an O2O venture-based startup which raised US$30 million last year and is now available in 15 cites nationwide; the fledgling having actually been launched in Nanjing in June 2012 by three post-80s overseas returnees.

With the other ten existing O2O food delivery services in the market vying to bring food to your door, Line Zero has its own niche. Unlike the other delivery apps, it has its own delivery team, which are made up of mostly post-80s or 90s young men, wearing a eye-catching yellow helmet and blue denim overall uniform (relating to the cartoon character Minion); “little yellow guys” is what customers call them.

Aimed at office workers in the city with a relatively high income, according to its statistics, 70 percent of Line 0 users are female. 

Line Zero’s app interface is aesthetically-pleasing and easy to navigate. It offered up a nice variety of eateries in the area, while one can also browse by category such as Chinese or western, office lunch or afternoon tea, etc. Health and Safety credentials, such as origin of ingredients and condition of the kitchen are also to hand for more picky office workers to check out. 

Eventually, another lady co-worker and I settled on SaladAwake, a eatery boasting healthy light food such as salads and high protein meals for those who want to diet; a good option as we both want to lose the weight we put on during the holiday. However, we found it difficult to find user recommendations as Line Zero does not offer a direct link to dianping.com, China’s largest review site, unlike many of the other food delivery apps. 

After consultation using another browser, we picked the “High-Protein Diet” Fish Sandwich (¥24) and a “Popeye Style” Spinach Chicken Gyro (¥19). Next step was the many payment options that include cash on delivery, good news for those with difficulties in navigating local online banking. Then there came three delivery time options and after receiving confirmation the icon of a little yellow guy appeared on the screen. This is part of Line 0’s Unique Selling Point; a cool feature that lets you have a peak at your delivery guy’s looks and service score based on previous customer ratings. His phone number is also supplied in case of delivery problems. 

This turned out not to be necessary as the app updated nearly every step of the way; from the moment the restaurant accepted the order, to when Zhao picked it up, to when he was making his way toward our office. I received a push notification after 55 minutes of waiting that our deliveryman, Zhao Long, had arrived. One minute later Zhao Long showed up at our fourteenth-floor office, dressed in a yellow vest and casual street clothes instead of the trademark yellow helmet and denim overalls, smiling timidly while handing over our food in a plastic bag. 

The quality and flavour of the food was decent; the fish sandwich was very fresh and the Chicken spinach roll came with with large amounts of sliced chicken. While they both looked small in portion, they turned out to be surprisingly filling in the end. My female colleague and I both felt energised and guilt free when we finished our lunch from SaladAwake. 

With a delivery fee of ¥7 and a nice discount of ¥10 from the restaurant, our not-so-little lunch came to a total of ¥40. Not bad at all, yet the wait of almost an hour was a little disappointing, especially when considering Line Zero guarantee a 40 minutes delivery within 6 kilometres. Nevertheless, the online ordering system was slick and seamless, while the real-time tracker was a nice touch. And the good looks of their delivery guys definitely count!

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