Frost & Sullivan officially releases the '2025 China Hotpot Delivery Industry Development White Paper'

The '2025 China Hotpot Delivery Industry Development White Paper' points out that with the acceleration of life rhythms and consumers' increasing demand for convenience, the hotpot delivery market has been booming. In 2024, the hotpot delivery market size reached 89 billion yuan, with an annual compound growth rate of 27.2% since 2019, and it is expected to grow to 161.7 billion yuan by 2029. To cope with increasingly fierce market competition, hotpot brands are creating differentiation through dish innovation and service innovation. Leading brands such as Xu Fu Niu have enhanced consumer trust through a transparent operation model of 'moving the kitchen to the dining table'. This trend reflects a shift from 'price-sensitive' to 'safety-first' consumers, as well as the industry's development towards healthier and more standardized directions. This white paper provides insights and strategic references for brands in the competitive market environment by deeply analyzing the current situation, development trends, and competitive landscape of China's hotpot delivery industry. It not only reveals the industry's huge growth potential but also emphasizes the key role of transparency, quality, and supply chain optimization in future competition.

The following is an excerpt from the white paper. For more details, scan the QR code to obtain the full version:

Analysis of the Chinese Catering and Hotpot Industry

China is the world's second-largest catering market, occupying an important position in China's national economy. It is the largest expenditure item for Chinese residents' consumption in 2024 and a key industry for the recovery of China's economy and consumption. As of 2024, China's catering industry ranks second in scale globally, with a market size of $786.7 billion, second only to the US catering market. The Chinese catering industry holds a pivotal position globally. This not only reflects the strong vitality of China's economy but also demonstrates the importance of the catering industry within the national economic system.

Source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

The evolution of chain catering has gone through a process from being dominated by foreign investment to the rise of local giants. Leading catering companies such as Haidilao and KFC China have flocked to list on the capital market; chain restaurants, especially those in the hot pot industry, have put forward new requirements for standardized supply chains.

Source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

Among the numerous sub-sectors of hot pot, Sichuan-Chongqing hot pot and beef hot pot occupy a significant market share. Meanwhile, Northern and Yunnan-Guizhou hot pot are emerging forces that are gradually rising. Leading enterprises lead the industry trend with their brand advantages and innovation capabilities, driving industry integration and upgrading.

Source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

Relying on its unique social attributes and high standardization level, the market scale of the hot pot industry continues to expand. In 2024, China's hot pot industry revenue reached 600 billion yuan, and the large number of stores demonstrates strong development momentum. It is expected that by 2029, the revenue will exceed 850 billion yuan.

Source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

The hot pot industry will develop in the future towards younger and more regular consumer segments, with health and convenience becoming new growth points. At the same time, the social attributes of consumers' dining experiences, as well as their increased focus on brands and quality, are influencing the direction of the hot pot industry, driving product innovation and service upgrades.

Source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

Analysis of China's Hotpot Takeaway Industry

The Chinese hot pot takeaway industry has developed rapidly in recent years, with the market scale continuously expanding and becoming an important part of the catering takeaway sector. It is mainly divided into ingredient takeaway and cooked takeaway. As an emerging catering service model, hot pot takeaway refers to the service where hot pot ingredients, base sauces, and related utensils are delivered to consumers' designated locations through online platforms. Consumers can cook and enjoy the hot pot at home. It breaks through the traditional limitations of in-person hot pot dining, extending the deliciousness and fun of hot pot to more scenarios such as homes and office spaces. Hot pot takeaway has gradually developed from early marginal attempts into an important force in the catering takeaway sector and has become an important representative symbol of modern consumption patterns and lifestyle culture. The industry is highly competitive, and brands are engaging in differentiated competition.

Source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

Consumers pursue convenient, fast, personalized, and high-quality hot pot takeaway services. The Chinese hot pot takeaway market reached a market scale of 899 billion yuan in 2024, driven by rapid development that has raised demands for food safety and delivery speed. With the development of the Chinese hot pot market, the hot pot takeaway market has also grown accordingly, with its market share continuously increasing. Consumers pursue convenient, fast, personalized, and high-quality hot pot takeaway services, placing high demands on food safety and delivery speed. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics, hot pot takeaway revenue reached 899 billion yuan in 2024, accounting for less than 15% of the total hot pot revenue, with a significant annual compound growth rate of 27.2% from 2019 to 2024. The strong growth of the hot pot takeaway market mainly stems from consumers' pursuit of convenient and cost-effective dining methods, which hot pot takeaway fulfills. Leading hot pot brands are also actively deploying their takeaway businesses, such as launching one-person hot pot packages for single consumers and small families to meet personalized dining needs.

With the acceleration of life rhythms and the increasing demand for takeout, the Chinese hot pot takeaway market has broad prospects, expected to continue growing in the next few years. It is projected to reach 161.7 billion yuan by 2029, with an annual compound growth rate of 12.5%. In the future, there is hope to further expand market share and enhance consumer experience, along with a corresponding increase in demand for food safety.

Source: Analysis by Frost & Sullivan

The in-depth development of the hot pot takeaway market is driven by internal and external factors at both the consumer end and supply side, including brand influence building, transparent takeaway operations, shifting consumer demand towards safety, and supply chain optimization. By leveraging demand traction and efficiency improvement, a new industry ecosystem is being constructed.

●Internal causes

Brand influenceBrand influence has become the core decision-making factor for consumers when choosing takeout. Chain hotpot brands establish trust barriers in consumers' minds through standardized products and services, forming an 'inertia of choice', thereby increasing repeat purchases and order conversions. Secondly, chain operations expand brand voice coverage through the synergistic effect of multiple stores, forming a density advantage in regional markets. While reducing customer acquisition costs, they strengthen the brand perception of 'reliable takeout'. Finally, brand influence helps enterprises break through in traffic competition. Under the platform's traffic distribution logic, highly cognizant brands obtain more exposure resources, forming a positive cycle of 'brand - traffic - order', consolidating their market position.

Transparent deliveryBy transparently displaying the entire delivery chain, enterprises can deepen consumers' trust in their brand. This transparency includes actions such as visualizing kitchen operations and traceability of ingredient sources, precisely hitting consumers' core demand for 'food safety'. Secondly, transparent operations provide a lever for brand differentiation. In homogeneous competition, 'visible assurance' becomes a unique selling point, attracting quality-conscious consumers and increasing average order value and user stickiness. Delivery transparency builds a 'trusted delivery' brand label, helping enterprises construct a differentiated image in the market, supporting long-term word-of-mouth accumulation and market expansion.

●external cause

The shift from emphasizing price to emphasizing safetyConsumers' demand has shifted from 'price sensitivity' to 'safety first', forcing the hot pot takeaway industry to upgrade. This demand change stems from concerns about the safety of small workshop takeaways, prompting consumers to actively choose branded chain takeaways, forming a market logic of 'safety demand-branded choice'.

At the same time, the acceleration of security demand upgrades has accelerated industry reshuffling. Small and medium-sized merchants lacking in quality control capabilities are gradually being phased out by the market, while chain brands with supply chain and quality control advantages are occupying more market share, further increasing industry concentration.

Supply chain optimizationSupply chain optimization is a dual guarantee for the profitability and experience of hot pot takeout. Leading enterprises achieve a win-win situation by intensifying procurement, central kitchen processing, and cold chain distribution, thereby reducing ingredient costs and enhancing freshness, supporting the profitability of their takeaway business.

Secondly, supply chain capabilities determine the efficiency of food delivery fulfillment. Full-link optimization reduces intermediate losses, shortens delivery times, and increases the repeat purchase rate.

Supply chain optimization promotes the formation of economies of scale. Leading brands, relying on a complete supply chain system, achieve standardized replication of stores across multiple regions, maintain quality stability during expansion, further widen the gap with small and medium-sized merchants, and consolidate their market position.

The hot pot takeaway industry chain includes a complete process from ingredient processing, store preparation, platform distribution to consumption. Hot pot merchants are the key production links connecting food ingredients with consumers.

In the fiercely competitive catering and takeaway market, hot pot takeaway is becoming a popular choice among diners due to its unique consumption scenarios and experience. The national hot pot takeaway market size is approaching 90 billion yuan in 2024, a figure backed by efficient collaboration across the entire chain, including ingredient supply, store processing, platform operations, and rider delivery. However, as consumers' demands for quality, timeliness, and experience continue to rise, the industry still needs to continuously break through supply chain bottlenecks, highlighting the potential and competitive vitality of the hot pot takeaway market.

In the upgrade of hot pot takeaway quality control, technology and processes have undergone significant optimization and transformation. In the early stages, some merchants had issues such as non-standard ingredient preparation and inadequate delivery insulation, which could reduce costs but affected consumer experience and food safety. With the standardized development of the industry, leading brands represented by Xu Fu Niu have gradually adopted models such as 'transparent ready-made' and 'intelligent cold chain distribution': they achieve visual production through live kitchen operations and rely on IoT technology to monitor the temperature throughout the delivery process. This not only retains the fresh taste and flavor of hot pot but also ensures safety and controllability from ingredients to the dining table, promoting the hot pot takeaway supply chain towards a healthier and more standardized direction.

In terms of supply and demand, the hot pot takeaway market is characterized by a dual-driven trend of quality demand and upgraded supply. Currently, consumers' demand for specialty ingredients, customized packages, and express delivery continues to rise. The construction of high-quality ingredient bases and intelligent delivery networks in China is accelerating. At the same time, some high-end ingredients rely on imports for supplementation. This supply and demand pattern not only reflects the hot pot takeaway industry's urgent pursuit of high-quality services but also highlights the inevitable trend of the industry's transformation towards refined operations under consumer upgrading.

In the construction of the beef hot pot supply chain, the standardization of Xufu Beef's fresh-cutting technique and soup base preparation has become key. In conjunction with the concept of 'moving the kitchen to the dining table', it better meets the market's demand for 'fresh and healthy' hot pot consumption.Xu's Kitchen is the first hot pot brand in the industry to achieve 'moving the kitchen to the dining table' and transparent delivery.Xu's Fuyou Beef has created the category mindset of 'fresh-cut beef hot pot' through 'offline store scene marketing + online Douyin/Hongdoubo content recommendation', reinforcing the brand tag of 'fresh, transparent' and 'bringing the kitchen to the dining table'.Operational visualization, real-time proof of ingredient freshness, and full traceability of the supply chainThese three pillars fundamentally penetrate the long-standing 'trust barrier' in the takeaway market.

At the same time, Xu's Kitchen continues to invest in product research and development as well as supply chain construction, achieving digital process control. This supports store expansion and quality stability, and promotes the brand's advancement from regional to national levels. Xu's Kitchen's 'Moving the Kitchen to the Table' has built an innovative takeaway model centered on 'extreme transparency', deeply integrating offline operations, online technology, supply chain management, and consumer psychology.