-Unmanned ordering devices on the table more than quadrupled in five years
-800,000 restaurant companies 中89% dependence on small and medium-sized "minimum wage increase hit"
-Government-level self-employed table order devices ↑
-Purchasing cost 6.7 million won, rental cost 679,000 won...The burden of fees and installation costs is also due to
- 'mildly' rising fees, PG's payment agency fees?
■ Broadcast: YTN Radio FM 94.5 (09:00-10:00)
■ Host: Reporter Cho Tae-hyun
■ Air date: October 18, 2024 (Friday)
■ Dialogue: Kim Sam-hee, Director of Research Division of the Korea Institute of Food Service Industry
- Information asymmetry? Fee billing system, why it's hard to know when signing a contract is
-Table Order market, entering large platforms such as Baemin and Yanolja... The second delivery app?
* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.
◆ Reporter Cho Tae-hyun (hereinafter referred to as Cho Tae-hyun): You can find a lot of restaurants with tablets on the table these days. It's a little comfortable. Looking at the story, I don't think it's that good. The cost of labor has risen a lot, so self-employed restaurants choose these unmanned ordering devices to save even a penny. Fees are going up little by little. There is also a situation in which the contract cannot be terminated due to the penalty problem, so there is a situation in which the fee is paid by crying and eating. Let's talk with Kim Sam-hee, head of the research division of the Korea Food Service Industry Research Institute, about what kind of problems are with this contract structure. Director, are you out?
◇Kim Sam-hee, Director of Research Division of the Korea Institute of Food Service Industry (hereinafter referred to as Kim Sam-hee): Yes, hello.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Yes, how are you? Following the kiosk, I think a lot of table ordering devices are being used these days, so please explain briefly what this is.
◇Sam-hee Kim: Table ordering devices are becoming more common in restaurants these days, and you can understand that table ordering devices are electronic devices that customers can check and order directly at the table. You can choose the menu intuitively, and the waiting time is significantly reduced because the order details are delivered to the kitchen in real time. I can tell you that it's a device that consumers can order conveniently because order errors are reduced, especially because it also has a payment function, and as you said earlier, the manpower shortage is serious. As a result, dependence on table orders is increasing.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Of course, this won't be free, and the workplace will pay the ordering equipment companies to some extent, right? What is the structure like?
◇ Kim Sam-hee: It costs almost nothing in the beginning, so we signed up a lot, but recently not only the price of the device but also the rental fee is quite high.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Okay. To recall my memory. I remember that kiosks and table order machines began to come in earnest after the last administration, and I think the number of businesses using these things has increased recently. Are you sure this is numerically increased?
◇ Kim Sam-hee: According to a statement by the Rural Economic Research Institute, numerically. In 2019, the proportion of use at that time was very small at about 1.5%, but in 2023, the number has more than quadrupled to about 7.8%. In particular, pizza and hamburger stores such as fast food are very dependent, but 23.6% of them are using unmanned devices very high.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: I think a lot of people are used to it now, but when you go to a restaurant, the elderly can't adjust well, so there are times when you wonder if it's the right direction to go like this. I think going like this would have been a burden on labor costs. Did the minimum wage actually affect you a lot?
◇ Kim Sam-hee: That's right. The minimum wage is now 10,000 won, but the amount of 10,000 won actually exceeds the current ability of small business owners to pay. It's a huge burden, but there are opinions that the minimum wage increase does not have a significant impact on employment decline in the Korean Labor Economics Association or KDI survey, but I think it's the result of not properly grasping the reality of small business owners. So, I think that this minimum wage of 10,000 won is a huge burden that I can't afford, so it's actually a major cause of the decline in income. In particular, as the manpower shortage has become more serious recently, we are going to a situation where we are running a restaurant business with minimal manpower, and in that context, there are about 800,000 restaurants. You didn't know there were this many, did you?
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: I had no idea.
◇Kim Sam-hee: There are about 800,000 of them, and small restaurant companies with less than four employees account for about 89%. Therefore, even though we have to hire a minimum number of people to run a restaurant, if we can't hire them because of the minimum wage or this, we have no choice but to go to a situation where our families or themselves have to work. I think I can tell you this.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: The number of self-employed people without employees is bound to increase. In fact, even if the minimum wage soared in a short period of time, it is also possible to confirm that there are some shocks to employment. I think we need to look at the contents of these research results in detail. Then, when you look at the affiliate advertisements of this table order device, you will definitely advertise that it is really helpful when you use these things. How are you advertising?
◇Kim Sam-hee: These are the methods that platform companies usually use. It doesn't cost anything or anything like that at first. In fact, it's a basic form where you have a marketing strategy and you actually use a lot of smart devices, you have a market share, you go into maturity, and then you have to raise some fees and take some of the basic revenue.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Okay. But I heard that the government also supported table order devices in the concept of supporting small business owners. Then, would the self-employed certainly have participated a lot?
◇Sam-hee Kim: This is currently being supported by the Small and Medium Business Venture Department. In fact, after paying about 30% of the self-payment, it is proceeding as a pre-payment, and the government has provided about 39,000 units over the past five years, so the government has distributed a lot. And it is confirmed that about 32.5 billion won has been set for next year's budget. In that sense, it is understood that the government is also quite willing to continue to support related projects.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: So far, it can be seen as positive in a way. Still, you can think of it as lower than labor costs, but you said that the problem is the same with any platform, but usage fees and fees will increase as time goes by. Then, isn't there a case where a contract is made to save labor costs and then the expenditure becomes higher?
◇ Kim Sam-hee: That's actually a big problem. In fact, we randomly selected 14 companies from the researcher yesterday and did some research. So, there are cases where you purchase a table order in a lump sum and rent it. It is now understood that buying a machine costs 200,000 won to 700,000 won per unit. In a year, if we look at the overall survey on the actual condition of the restaurant economy, the average number of tables for 800,000 is about 9.7. If you roughly convert it, the purchase cost will be about 1.94 million won to 6.7 million won. Then, it was found that the maintenance cost for a year is about 485,000 won, and in the case of rental, it costs about 10,000 won to 70,000 won per unit. If you convert the 9.7 units as mentioned earlier, you will pay almost 679,000 won for monthly rental. The problem is that not only rental fees, but also device fees, Internet connection fees, initial installation costs, and accessories costs are added, and we can tell you that we are going to a situation where fixed expenses cannot increase more than we originally thought.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Are you saying that there are actual cases like that, but are you saying that there are cases like this that charge for closing businesses or cancellation of penalties?
◇ Kim Sam-hee: It's happening. It is also understood that the number of such cases has been increasing a lot recently. When the contract is terminated, it is said that in addition to the penalty, the registration fee of 900,000 won and the recovery fee of 55,000 won must be added. I think such cases will increase more in the future.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Okay. However, there must be a logic that can be clearly explained by these unmanned ordering equipment companies. Of course, you don't have to make money because this is a business. Of course, you have to make money, but the problem is that you raise these fees without properly notifying them, so what do you think is the reason for doing this?
◇Kim Sam-hee: It's for profit in the case of companies, but as a result, this market is also going into excessive competition and the number of companies is increasing. So, at first, most of them have business models that focus on securing market share and then increase commission in the form of a substantially fundamental business model to maximize income. Next, one of the reasons for this increase is the payment agency fee of PG. If you use this payment system, it's much more expensive than the existing credit card fees. The fee is usually about twice as high, but most restaurant companies don't know that simple payments or such payment systems are more expensive than existing credit card companies. Therefore, if it is based on monthly sales of about 25 million won, the card fee is about 125,000 won. However, if you apply a 2.5% fee for a monthly table order, it is about 625,000 won, and there is a difference of about 500,000 won per month. If the annual calculation costs about 1.55 million won for the card fee, the table order fee is about 7.5 million won and 6 million won, so this gap is huge. The problem is that there is currently no regulatory basis for the victim's payment agency fee under the Credit Finance Act. So I think those are the biggest problems.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Okay. However, I heard that the fee varies widely even in businesses that use the same table order. Why is there such a difference?
◇ Kim Sam-hee: There is a PG company that pays and a VAN company called the value-added network. In the case of PG, it receives sales payments from credit card companies and settles them collectively to merchants, but VAN only charges credit card fees to merchants by receiving fees directly from credit card companies. What that means is that PG has about two steps to pay. Since there is only one VAN company, the fee is inevitably higher when using PG. Therefore, depending on the difference between using PG or VAN, the fee is inevitably large.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Okay. There is a difference in fees like this, and recently, large platform companies such as Baemin and Yanolja are also moving to participate. Then, wouldn't this be a situation where large platforms dominate the market like the 'second delivery app'?
◇Kim Sam-hee: It's a big problem. So, it is understood that large platforms are entering the market in earnest, and it is understood that they have actually entered a lot. It can be said that platform companies can diversify their income and dominate new markets, but when looking at the behavior of existing platforms, as a result, they raise their market share with large capital and raise their market share, and then increase their commissions.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: That's how delivery apps do it now.
◇Kim Sam-hee: It's a very worrisome situation.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Okay. These concerns are growing, problems are emerging little by little, and friction is occurring. Then, whether it's at the government level or a consultative body between restaurants and companies to discuss, isn't a situation where a consultative point is needed anyway?
◇Kim Sam-hee: You're right. Also, it's not that there hasn't been such efforts. In the meantime, the Fair Trade Commission has made such efforts through self-regulation, but in the case of any platform, the fee was raised from 6.8% to 9.8%. The Fair Trade Commission is also dealing with it because it was increased, but it seems that the percentage is not actually functioning. If so, it is true that even if a consultative body is created to solve the table order fee problem in the same context, the doubt arises first whether it is actually effective.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Okay. Then, some say that the current urgent task is to institutionalize PG's commission rate, but the Financial Services Commission says it is reluctant to do so. Why are you looking at me like this?
◇Kim Sam-hee: I even met him. I've met you and I've told you enough about this, but you said that it's actually very small, large, and various companies are rampant, and in practice, card fees are not legally regulated in the autonomous economy market. So, they give autonomy and set fees for each section, and in that context, it is understood that PG companies also want to manage it like that. The willingness to intervene actively is a situation that I have not actually found.
◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Okay. It's still in the early stages of the market, but if you look at the cases ahead, there is a possibility that these problems may repeat. Even now, it seems clear that some consultation needs to begin. So far, we have taken a comprehensive look at the noises related to unmanned table orders with Kim Sam-hee, head of the Korea Food Service Industry Research Institute. Thank you for talking today.
◇Kim Sam-hee: Yes, thank you.
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