Cyber Food Swamps: Investigating the Impacts of Online-to-Offline Food Delivery Platforms on Healthy Food Choices

Online-to-offline (O2O) food delivery platforms have greatly expanded urban residents' access to a wide range of food options by allowing convenient ordering from distant food outlets. However, concerns persist regarding the nutritional quality of delivered food, particularly as the impact of O2O food delivery platforms on users’ healthy food remains unclear. This study leverages large-scale empirical data from a leading O2O delivery platform to comprehensively analyze online food choice behaviors and how they are influenced by the online exposure to fast food restaurants, i.e., online food environment. Our analyses reveal significant variations in food preferences across demographic groups and city sizes, where male, low-income, and younger users are more likely to order fast food via O2O platforms. Besides, we also perform a comparative analysis on the food exposure differences in offline and online environments, confirming that the extended service ranges of O2O platforms can create larger "cyber food swamps". Furthermore, regression analysis highlights that a higher ratio of fast food orders is associated with "cyber food swamps", areas characterized by a higher proportion of accessible fast food restaurants. A 10% increase in this proportion raises the probability of ordering fast food by 22.0%. Moreover, a quasi-natural experiment substantiates the long-term causal effect of online food environment changes on healthy food choices. These findings underscore the need for O2O food delivery platforms to address the health implications of online food choice exposure, offering critical insights for stakeholders aiming to improve dietary health among urban populations.