Frustrated with the high discounts that Chinese food ordering apps impose, some restaurants build their own delivery service.

For Mike Wong, owner of Hong Kong Grassroots Canteen, Beijing's delivery service has long puzzled him.

Users just need to open the app, order food on the restaurant list and the shipper will deliver the food to the place.

"My profit is only 10-15%, so, with the order taken away, all the profits I have to pay Meituan. In Beijing, many people only order a cup of milk tea or a bowl of wonton noodles.

He switched to FlashEx, a delivery application specializing in delivering all kinds of goods, to take orders away.

"In Australia, (where Wong used to live), customers have to pay extra if they take it away. In China, if the rate increases, take away will cost customers. So I pay the delivery fee using FlashEx.

Wong is one of many restaurant owners in China who are responding to food delivery applications they call "hegemony" in China.

A recent report by the China Internet Data Analysis Center (DCCI) found that nearly half of the country's Internet users used online delivery last year, of which 67% used Meituan.

The applications were more heavily criticized in the context of Covid-19, which caused many restaurants to be severely affected by business outages, employees having to quit their jobs and the economy slowing down.

In February, restaurant associations in Trung Khanh, southwest China's city, as well as in Hebei, Yunnan and Shandong, all sent open letters calling for Ele.me and Meituan to reduce the discount.

According to the open letter, the discount rate that Meituan imposes is higher if the restaurant wants to cooperate with other applications.

The owner of a steak restaurant in Beijing, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he started placing a referral card in every bag of food delivered in the hope of increasing the number of customers who ordered it directly at the restaurant.

"We have a delivery staff. During the outbreak, we had to shut down the food service at the restaurant. We took photos of the food, opened the online ordering platform. We didn't have time before."

Liu Jingjing, owner of Jiahe porridge chain, which has more than 100 stores in China, said it has upgraded its delivery app, allowing employees to interact directly with customers.

"It helps us save commissions on ordering, benefits our customers. We have more than two million registered users. We use Dada's all-in-one delivery service.

A spokeswoman for Meituan said that in 2019, more than three million store owners accepted applications via the app, with more than 80% of restaurants paying a 10-20% commission.

A spokeswoman for Ele.me said the company has carried out four reductions or discounts on orders since Covid-19 broke out, as well as supporting the restaurant by giving them free advertising such as placing a billboard.

"These measures include providing a free course on how to stand firm in the food industry, launching a platform that allows restaurant employees to switch jobs to deliver goods," said Ele.me representative.