Amid the legal battle in the delivery market, with mutual accusations of espionage, theft of corporate data, and unfair competition between iFood and Keeta , the 99Food platform, from the Chinese giant DiDi, will begin its operation in the Baixada Santista region in July, especially in the city of Santos, according to NeoFeed .
In practice, Santos will be the second city in Brazil where the three main food delivery platforms will offer the service simultaneously. The first was São Paulo. In the São Paulo capital, 99Food arrived in August of last year, and Keeta in December. iFood has been delivering in the city since 2012.
The Chinese company's new route, descending the Serra do Mar mountain range, will further intensify the competition for the billion-dollar delivery market in Brazil. Data from the company Getnet shows that the food delivery sector generated R$ 79 billion in 2025, a 12.7% increase over the previous year.
In this way, companies now have a new arena for market competition, in addition to lawsuits filed by companies and complaints to the Administrative Council for Economic Defense ( Cade ) regarding practices considered abusive, such as exclusivity policies with restaurants.
The rationale behind 99Food's decision to enter the region that Keeta used as its gateway to Brazil last October lies in the economic weight of the São Paulo coast, which today has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of R$ 100 billion.
With high urban density and a population of 430,000, Santos has a per capita household income of R$ 3,300, above the national average (R$ 2,200). Furthermore, the city's geography facilitates the operation of motorcyclists, as it is a predominantly flat city.
The arrival comes at a time when 99Food's operation is already structured in Brazil, with nearly 90 cities where it operates in the food delivery segment. The expectation is to reach 100 municipalities by the end of this month and complete the initial cycle of R$ 2 billion in investments.
“It makes a lot of sense for the company to arrive in Santos now, given its strategic plan. The company already has a good number of registered restaurants and a large volume of motorcycle couriers. And it's in a very important city in terms of business volume,” a source in the sector, with access to 99Food's plans, told NeoFeed . The company is preparing the official launch of its arrival on the coast.
In this way, the company is going in the opposite direction from its Chinese competitor, which is now focusing on larger cities. Therefore, the Santos operation will represent the beginning of this new investment cycle, which the company is not disclosing.
Among the cities where the platform already operates are several state capitals, in addition to São Paulo. The company has operations in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Goiânia, Salvador, Fortaleza, Maceió, Brasília, Porto Alegre, among others. Now, with this market consolidated, the idea is precisely to accelerate the growth into medium-sized cities with great consumer potential.
The company's focus, from this new phase onwards, is precisely on expanding the "superapp" concept, adding urban mobility, credit, shopping, and food delivery services to the regions. NeoFeed found that Santos is in the top 10 Brazilian cities for 99 in terms of the volume of ride requests by car and motorcycle (which is allowed in the municipality).
In total, the company has 60 million active users in Brazil, across all its services. The company does not disclose the numbers by division.
In any case, the challenge is, in addition to pioneering a region where Keeta has already entered, to start occupying part of the market comfortably led by iFood, which has about 80% market share , according to research by the Brazilian Association of Bars and Restaurants (Abrasel). There is still no data available after the entry of the two competitors.
“Before, the entire market was focused solely on the app, and not on those who make the wheels turn. Those were iFood's rules. Now, the model has changed and broken down these barriers. With that, the focus has shifted to partners and customers,” explained another industry executive interviewed by NeoFeed .
99Food will offer each customer five coupons, totaling R$ 99 in discounts on orders in the Baixada Santista region, as an initial plan to enter the area. However, it will not engage in the fierce coupon war that Keeta has been doing, which has been the target of complaints from iFood for anti-competitive practices.
Commission War
Another competitive advantage is the fee charged to partner restaurants. The company intends to offer rates between 8% and 10.9%. Some of the establishments in Santos, which will be on the platform in July, joined the platform under the initial plan, in 2025, without a fee for a period. The new ones will then fall under the standard model.
On iFood's basic plan, when the restaurant handles its own delivery, the commission is 12%. With the platform handling the delivery, it costs 23%. Keeta charges 12%, but in the first year it drops to 9.9%.
“It doesn’t make sense for a pizza, which costs R$ 100, to be sold for R$ 130 on a platform, solely because of the fees and monthly charges. That’s not fair to either the merchant or the consumer,” the executive explains. “If that price drops, there’s more demand for everyone.”
The fact is that, with more players in the market, the competition for customer attention intensifies. Research conducted in April by Abrasel showed that, with fiercer competition, as in the case of the city of São Paulo, the demand for deliveries increased by 20%.
“Competition has been a very positive factor. The arrival of Keeta and 99Food has brought gains for delivery drivers, who have seen an increase in pay; for consumers, who have had lower prices; and for restaurants, which have seen their fees fall,” says Paulo Solmucci, president of Abrasel, to NeoFeed .
“With these actions, the market has grown by more than 20% and has the potential to continue evolving. The broad competition and the presence of these platforms in various cities tend to bring more collective benefits,” adds Solmucci.
iFood is currently in two thousand cities in Brazil, with 500,000 registered establishments and 600,000 delivery drivers. According to the company, it has over 60 million active customers, with 180 million orders placed through the app.
Keeta operates in 11 cities. In addition to Santos and São Vicente, it also operates in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region. In March, the company abandoned its plans to enter Rio de Janeiro, claiming that the market in the city was closed to other companies due to unfair competition from iFood and 99Food.
99Food started operating in the Brazilian market in 2019, but left in 2023. Its return occurred in 2025.
Contacted by NeoFeed for comment on the arrival of the app in the Baixada Santista region, 99Food did not respond.
