Baemin Releases Second Series of Home Meal Replacements

Gaining Popularity in Live Broadcast

Woowa Brothers, the company behind the delivery service ‘Baedal Minjok (Baemin)’, is making a full-scale push into the home meal replacement (HMR) market. After launching the HMR brand ‘Baemin’s Discovery’ last May, the first product gained great popularity, accelerating preparations for follow-up product releases. The subsequent products are expected to hit the market as early as this month. Since Baemin’s HMR products are sold through ‘Baemin Shopping Live’, this aligns with their recent strategy to strengthen live commerce, increasing the significance of this new business.

According to Woowa Brothers on the 1st, Baemin’s follow-up HMR products are scheduled for release between the end of this month and early August. Woowa Brothers is comprehensively reviewing menu differentiation and product quality to select about 10 popular restaurants in the Seoul and Gyeonggi regions. They are meeting with each restaurant owner to explain the purpose and process of Baemin’s Discovery.

Baemin’s HMR business model involves connecting directly discovered restaurants with professional food manufacturers and sellers to help commercialize their products and support sales through live commerce. Each restaurant receives a certain percentage of the product sales transaction amount as royalties for sharing their brand and menu recipes. This allows restaurants to minimize investment burdens required to convert their menus into HMR products while benefiting from promotional effects and earning royalty income. A Baemin representative explained, "Baemin’s Discovery was planned to reflect the trend of wanting to enjoy famous restaurant menus at home even when visiting restaurants is limited due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation. Baemin restaurant owners can promote their stores and menus nationwide while increasing profits, and customers can enjoy famous restaurant dishes from across the country in HMR form."

In particular, Baemin emphasizes the competitiveness of its HMR business by implementing recipes from popular restaurant menus on Baemin. Many popular local restaurants on Baemin are difficult to access via delivery services in other regions. Baemin has developed a universal service by turning verified dishes from Baemin into HMR products.

Baemin’s acceleration in the HMR business is driven by the popularity of its first product launched last May, ‘Jjolgalbi’ (chewy short ribs). The ‘Palbaekjip Jjolgalbi’, sold as the first product of Baemin’s Discovery, is nearing a complete sell-out of its initial production quantity, and the Baemin Shopping Live broadcast video has recorded about 250,000 views. The success was attributed to enabling real-time communication through live commerce, where customers could learn the stories behind the restaurants and dishes and ask questions, even for lesser-known stores.

Baemin is focusing on the HMR new business because of the high growth potential of this market. According to the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT), the domestic convenience food market, which was worth about 4.2 trillion KRW in 2019, is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 9.2% until 2025. Additionally, the HMR business involving participating restaurants is expected to play a role in Baemin’s live commerce expansion strategy. A Baemin representative said, "Baemin live commerce is still in its early stages, handling products from a select few brands to provide a curated experience, but it plans to evolve into a form where more sellers can participate in the future."