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In 2014 two Chinese international students at Simon Fraser University – economics student Randy Wu and friend Yaofei Feng – turned a simple craving into a company. “At the time, we didn’t have [delivery] service,” explains Feng vantechjournal.com.
They saw that mainstream apps in Canada and the US lacked authentic Chinese food options, so they built Fantuan Delivery (饭团外卖, literally “Rice Ball Delivery”) to fill the gap vantechjournal.com en.wikipedia.org.
The name even nods to Chinese culture – “Fantuan” means a rice ball en.wikipedia.org. The founders describe Fantuan’s mission as “life made easier”, and indeed they bootstrapped a one-stop platform connecting Chinese communities to local restaurants play.google.com vantechjournal.com. Starting on Burnaby Mountain in Vancouver, they personally placed and even delivered orders to perfect the service.
A Community-Driven Superapp
Fantuan’s edge has always been culture. From day one they built the app to “feel familiar for Meituan and WeChat users,” mirroring Chinese delivery apps
globalaffairs.org chinadaily.com.cn.
All menus and customer support are in Chinese (though an English version later launched) and the checkout fully accepts WeChat Pay and Alipay en.wikipedia.org play.google.com. As co-founder Feng says, “you have to use [the customers’] own language so they feel more connected with the community”vantechjournal.com.
Fantuan’s sales and operations teams speak Mandarin, Cantonese, or other Asian languages, letting mom-and-pop restaurant owners onboard and troubleshoot smoothly vantechjournal.com.
This focus on language and culture pays off: when a user opens Fantuan they see authentic Asian cuisine recommendations, not a sea of Starbucks or pizza chains vantechjournal.com, and Chinese-speaking support means new immigrants and students feel at home. As one PR manager puts it, Fantuan’s platform is “finely tuned to [Chinese users’] preferences, offering authentic Asian selections that cannot be found on those [mainstream] apps” chinadaily.com.cn.
More Than Food – A One-Stop Life Services App
Fantuan quickly evolved from a food-delivery app into a multi-service community platform. It rolled out Fantuan Errands for parcel delivery and on-demand shopping
play.google.com, plus “TT Mart” grocery delivery stocking Asian produce and daily essentialsplay.google.com.
The app even added entertainment: users can book show tickets or KTV and games directly play.google.com. In short, Fantuan aimed to become an “overseas Meituan”betakit.com.
Today Fantuan hosts promotions and social shopping features (like group-buy flash sales) so that friends and neighborhoods can save together. It truly is a one-stop life-services platform – from authentic dinner to fresh groceries to event tickets – all wrapped in one Chinese-language app
play.google.com betakit.com.
Explosive Growth and Global Reach
Fantuan’s community-first strategy drove rapid growth. It now boasts millions of users and orders worldwide. By 2024, Fantuan reported over 3.6 million users across four countries (the US, Canada, Australia and the UK) chinadaily.com.cn.
Its coverage spans dozens of cities: launched in Vancouver in 2014, expanded to Toronto by 2016 betakit.com, then into major US cities (Seattle, New York, California) by 2019 betakit.com play.google.com, and to London, Melbourne and other cities in the UK and Australia by 2022 betakit.com vantechjournal.com. (Indeed, one report notes Fantuan had scaled from Vancouver to over 70 cities across North America, the U.K. and Australia by 2024 globalaffairs.org.)
Today Fantuan serves millions of annual orders (over 3.5 million per year) and partners with thousands of merchants from family-run noodle shops to popular chains. It has become a technology success – ranking on Deloitte’s Fast 50 list for explosive revenue growth play.google.com
betakit.com.
Fantuan’s story shows the power of a culturally tailored platform. It grew by serving a niche: new immigrants and overseas students craving a taste of home. By offering a Chinese-language experience, familiar payment methods, community-focused marketing, and multi-purpose features, the startup quickly became the go-to app in Chinese neighborhoods abroad chinadaily.com.cn play.google.com.
Build Your Own Niche Delivery Platform
Fantuan’s success demonstrates a key lesson for entrepreneurs: niche marketplaces can thrive when built for their community, by those who understand it. Ordering.co makes it easy to launch that kind of platform.
Whether your audience is defined by culture, cuisine, or any interest, you can use Ordering.co’s turnkey tech to spin up a branded app and website in weeks. Join Fantuan and other niche winners by building your own specialized delivery marketplace today – check out Ordering.co to get started on your story.