Food delivery by drone is just part of daily life in Shenzhen

The drone delivery service I was trying out is operated by Meituan, China's most popular food delivery platform. In 2022, the company engaged some 6 million gig delivery workers to deliver billions of orders. But the company has also been developing drone delivery since 2017. And in Shenzhen, a southern city that's home to a mature drone supply chain, Meituan has been regularly operating such delivery routes for the last year and a half. Many big corporations have had their eyes on drone delivery: Amazon first proposed doing it in 2013, but its progress has been limited by regulations and a lack of demand.