Baemin digitized Korea's restaurant flyers — and won delivery on experience, not subsidies

Woowa Brothers (Kim Bong-jin) launched Baemin in June 2010. Its early differentiator was cost discipline: a flyer-digitization app needed no inventory and no couriers, and word of mouth spread it while the first big cheque (Goldman Sachs, $35.6M) came only in 2014. By 2018 The Investor recorded Woowa as a 'unicorn' after a $320 million round; in December 2019 Delivery Hero bought 87% of the company for about $4 billion (Yonhap).

Under Delivery Hero the economics improved: FY2023 revenue ₩3.42 trillion with operating profit of ₩699.8 billion (+65%) — its first profitable years; FY2025 (calendar 2025) revenue reached ₩5.283 trillion (+22.2%, first above ₩5 trillion) with operating profit of ₩592.9 billion (−7.5%). Its June 2025 fifteenth anniversary counted 6.5 billion cumulative orders and ₩153 trillion in transactions (Asiae).

Competitive dynamics: Baemin's app share sat around 59% in 2024, with Coupang Eats and Yogiyo contesting; in 2026 Delivery Hero and Woowa were reported exploring exits and a sale to Uber — a reminder that even a category winner's ownership can change hands.

Digitize flyers, add brokering later.

Zero-burn cold start: starting as a flyer directory let Baemin build the two-sided network before it funded couriers — the phone-order era kept operating costs near zero.

Experience over subsidy: the playful brand and reliable fulfillment created retention that price-burning rivals could not buy cheaply.

In local marketplaces, start with the artifact that already exists — the flyer, the listing, the directory — then add operations layer by layer; distribution won on experience outlasts

Baemin stayed Korea's delivery leader with ~59% app share (2024) and FY2025 revenue ₩5.28T (operating profit ₩592.9B); Delivery Hero's 2019 acquisition (~$4B for 87%) was followed in 2026 by exit reports — the flyer app of 2010 evolved into a five-trillion-won business with a changing owner.