Baedal Minjok Introduces New Commission-Centered Fee 'Open Service'

Charging system where platform earns revenue when orders generate profit for restaurants
5.8% commission per transaction... 52.8% of 140,000 registered merchants experience reduced costs, with greater benefits for small businesses

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] Woowa Brothers announced that starting from the 1st, they will launch a new commission-based fee system called "Open Service" on their delivery application, Baedal Minjok.

Open Service is a fee system that charges a 5.8% commission only on orders successfully placed through Baedal Minjok. Kim Beom-jun, CEO of Woowa Brothers, explained, "After long consideration and preparation, we introduced Open Service, the most reasonable fee system for both restaurant owners using Baemin and customers. Business owners will bear a uniformly low commission rate, and users will have enhanced choices of restaurants and menus."

Woowa Brothers described five advantages of the new fee system. First, the controversial "flag planting" issue, which had been problematic, will disappear. Flag planting refers to the practice in the monthly flat-rate advertising model "Ultracall," where financially strong restaurant owners register multiple ads near their business locations, monopolizing orders through overlapping exposure. With this revision, the commission-based Open Service area will be more prominently exposed, and Ultracall ads will be limited to three or fewer and placed at the bottom, eliminating the flag planting problem.

Additionally, Woowa Brothers explained that smaller business owners will benefit more from the fee plan revision. Internal simulations show that 52.8% of registered business owners will experience reduced cost burdens on Baemin. For small business owners who have been open less than a year or have annual sales under 300 million KRW, about 58% can enjoy cost savings.

The areas where store names are displayed on the app will also diversify. Stores registered under Open Service will be automatically exposed not only in menu categories but also in popular categories such as single-serving dishes recently favored by customers. Besides existing categories like Korean and Japanese cuisine, opportunities to be featured in seasonal food specials or abalone dish specials will also increase. Previously, entering these special sections required purchasing separate advertising products.

It is also expected to enhance user choice. Under the new fee system, customers will be able to see stores that are nearby for faster delivery or those with high reorder rates by other customers first, improving user satisfaction. Search and filter functions have been strengthened to make it easier to find desired stores. Woowa Brothers plans to offer features allowing individual users to set exposure priorities for their preferred stores and menus in the future.

Since early last month, Woowa Brothers has been informing registered businesses about the new fee system and accepting Open Service subscription applications. Currently, out of about 140,000 registered business owners, over 100,000 have joined Open Service. CEO Kim said, "The reason why major global platform companies base their fee systems on commissions is that it is most reasonable for platforms to generate revenue only when orders are successfully placed and business owners profit. We hope that under the new charging system, more stores will enjoy increased sales with less burden."