A catering sector representative on Tuesday said he was concerned restaurants would need to pay higher fees for using delivery platforms in future.

This came a day after online food delivery platform Deliveroo announced it would shut down its Hong Kong operations next month, leaving Foodpanda and mainland-based Keeta in the sector.

Simon Wong, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, said eateries might still get away with paying less for the moment, but that would probably not continue.

“In the short term, I believe there will be intense competition between the two companies, Foodpanda and Keeta. But in the end when they find a balance where neither can defeat the other, then restaurants may have to accept that there will be fewer discounts,” he told an RTHK radio programme.

Meanwhile, a marketing professor from Hang Seng University said the delivery market in Hong Kong is saturated and the city could only accommodate two to three delivery platforms at most.

Kenneth Kwong told the same programme that delivery platforms need to think of other forms of business opportunities.

“The delivery platform operators should come up with new ideas, for example working more closely with restaurants, as well as expanding their business. Can they also deliver household items as well? I think this will open up more space for development in the market,” he said.

The scholar thinks Deliveroo made the decision to exit Hong Kong market purely on commercial considerations.

He said the operating costs for delivery platforms are quite high as they need to update their software and hardware on a regular basis.