网上订餐-我的美味我作主

城市越来越大，生活越来越紧张。在北京、上海、广州等一线城市，订餐服务越来越火爆。短短几年内，一线城市的订餐网络市场被迅速催化，这些网站不仅可以给网民提供海量的餐厅信息、交流美食心得的平台，而且可以给订餐者实实在在的折扣。顾客可以依照个人偏好的口味、适合的地点、希望的消费档次、偏爱的环境等个性化喜好在网站搜索引擎中进行检索，然后挑选满意的餐厅并预订就餐;同时还可以在网上看到网友对这家餐厅的评价及推荐菜等实用信息，作为自己选择餐厅的参考依据。

Xiao Chai is a fast-food order taker. Every day he delivers meals from various fast-food restaurants to customers across Beijing.

He is not directly employed by any of these restaurants, but works for a meal delivery website.

Xiao Chai says the business delivers orders from both Chinese and western restaurants. On its website, people can order all kinds of takeout meals from McDonald's, KFC, Starbucks or even Quanjude roast duck restaurant.

Wang Tianyi is General Manger of the meal delivery website.

"As long as the restaurant our customer wants to order from stays open, we will definitely deliver the meals as required."

The website promises it will take no more than 40 minutes to deliver the meal to customers after they place their orders. This is why all the order takers wait outside different restaurants throughout the city before lunch and suppertime, so they can buy the food as soon as they receive customers' orders.

One order taker says the busiest times are normally from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Being quick is only part of the order takers' competitiveness. Lower delivery costs are another. While most fast-food restaurants charge six or seven yuan for each delivery, the website only charges five yuan.

One customer says the service is appealing because the price is a bit lower than what most restaurants charge for delivery. Another one says McDonald's and KFC only deliver their own fast-food meals, but people have more choices when they order through Tiantian Waimai.

Nowadays, there are many fast-food delivery websites in Beijing, although most of them cover the CBD area and hustle-and-bustle communities. But their operations are still small-scale.

At Tiantian Waimai, for example, there are only four order takers who earn basic monthly salaries of 1,200 yuan each and an extra two-yuan for every order they take.

Usually the website receives about 70 orders daily, so it can earn a profit of only 350 yuan a day. So how does it make ends meet? Here is Wang Tianyi again.

"We make a profit by collaborating with these restaurants. They will give us meals at a lower price if the number of meals we order is high enough."

When fast food delivery websites save restaurants from hiring people to take phone orders for food, they earn fees for the order delivery. This seems as if it is the perfect deal.

For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.