The Korea Small Business Association will hold a National Assembly policy forum on the theme "Sustainability of the delivery platform ecosystem: diagnosis and prescription" at the small auditorium of the National Assembly Library on the 16th. The forum is co-hosted by Reps. Kim Won-i and Jeong Jin-uk of the Trade. Industry Energy. SMEs. and Startups Committee, and sponsored by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises, the Small Enterprise & Market Service (SEMAS), and the Korea SMEs & Startups Institute (KOSI).
The delivery platform market has grown rapidly over the past 10 years to an annual transaction value of about 28 trillion won. However, as dependence on platforms has risen, structural problems such as worsening profitability for small business owners on the platforms and deepening platform lock-in have been raised continuously.
The forum aims to diagnose the current state of the delivery platform ecosystem with empirical data and to seek policy alternatives to create a sustainable market environment. Government, academia, research institutes, and small business group officials will attend to discuss the ecosystem's structural problems and directions for improvement.
Professor Jeon Seong-min of Gachon University's Department of Business Administration will present on the topic "Global platform ecosystems: what's different." The presentation will compare and analyze platform regulatory trends and delivery fee structures in major countries, including the United States, the European Union (EU), and China.
Professor Jeon will analyze and present the so-called "winner-takes-all" structure in which platforms expand the market through initial subsidies, secure dominance, and then maximize revenue by raising fees and reducing rewards. Jeon will also note that excessive regulation can dampen innovation investment and startups, emphasizing the need for balanced policy design.
Park Kyung-min, president of the Korea Small Business Association (professor at Yonsei University School of Business), will present on the topic "A two-sided market diagnosis of Korea's delivery platforms." Park, together with co-researcher Gwak Hye-min, will release research findings analyzing 49 months (2021–2025) of actual transaction data from 13,098 restaurants in the Seoul metropolitan area. According to the study, as dependence on delivery apps increases, sales rise but operating profit margins fall, a phenomenon dubbed the "paradox of growth."
For restaurants in Seoul, the average share of sales from delivery apps was found at 17.1%, and the average operating profit margin was found at 3.35%. Notably, even when using the same platform, small and mid-sized restaurants saw profitability worsen as delivery app dependence grew, while large restaurants benefited from economies of scale. The study also found that restaurants whose sales are concentrated on a specific platform are more vulnerable to fee hikes. Because it is difficult to transfer "reputation assets" such as star ratings and reviews within a platform to another platform, critics say small business owners' choices are limited.
Park said, "If you do not rely on platforms, you fall behind in competition, and the more you rely on them, the more profitability worsens—this is not the problem of an individual self-employed person but of market structure," adding, "Rather than directly regulating prices, policies should guarantee collective bargaining rights for small business owners and promote market competition by increasing mobility between platforms."
The general discussion will be chaired by Kim Kwang-hyun, a professor at Korea University. Participants will include Seon Jung-gyu, director general of competition policy at the Korea Fair Trade Commission; Lee Sang-yoon, a professor at Sungkonghoe University; Lee Eun-cheong, director general of win-win cooperation policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups; Lee Hye-won, associate research fellow at the Small Enterprise & Market Service (SEMAS) Small Business Policy Research Institute; Cha Nam-su, Deputy Minister at the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME); and Choi Su-jeong, research fellow at the Korea SMEs & Startups Institute (KOSI).
Participants are expected to exchange views on creating a fair competitive environment in the delivery platform market, measures to protect small business owners, and strategies for the sustainable development of the platform ecosystem.