On a local food-delivery app, coupons that were once free saw their threshold jump from HK$20 to HK$80 per set once a user had built up spending — what users described as the 'harvest' phase. Many Hong Kong consumers report that these apps win custom early on with heavy coupons, low self-pickup thresholds and delivery-fee waivers, but personalised pricing algorithms then produce different prices and coupon thresholds for the same item across different accounts — and long-term users end up paying more than new ones.
Hong Kong's delivery market is dominated by a handful of operators backed by international and mainland capital, and the local Competition Ordinance does not cover disclosure requirements for practices such as 'dynamic pricing' or 'personalised coupon thresholds'; restaurants have limited bargaining power between platforms, and minimum-order rules and platform fees are often passed on to consumers. This combination of market concentration and algorithmic pricing leaves local food-delivery users at a chronic information disadvantage, and the parallel evolution of the local catering trade and consumer protection has yet to establish transparency rules specifically for algorithmic pricing.