South Korean Delivery Platform Baemin Discloses AI Search Results: Semantic Matching Cuts Null Results by 80%, Boosts Order Metrics by 50%
Baemin operator Woowa Brothers reported that implementing semantic search significantly reduced instances where users found no products, while improving order-related metrics in experimental segments.
Woowa Brothers, the operator of South Korea's largest food delivery platform Baemin, disclosed advancements in its search technology at the 'Woowa Tech Conference 2026' held in Seoul on October 28. The company stated that it has enhanced its system using AI-driven semantic search to overcome the limitations of traditional keyword matching.
According to server developer Lee Seung-hyo and machine learning engineer Yeom Ha-neul, who presented the case study, the legacy system compared input terms strictly against store and product names. This often led to irrelevant results for intent-based queries, such as showing shrimp chips when a user searched for 'diet snacks'. After adopting semantic search, which analyzes the meaning behind the query, the rate of searches returning no results decreased by approximately 80%.
In specific experiments where exact keyword matches failed, the introduction of semantic search resulted in an increase of over 50% in order-related metrics. Engineer Yeom noted that while this segment represents a small portion of total traffic, the improvement was significant enough to impact overall search indicators. The company also implemented personalization techniques that rerank results based on users' past order history and is expanding towards conversational AI search capabilities.
However, challenges remain. The embedding models currently struggle with complex conditions involving negations, such as failing to exclude peanut-containing menus for a request stating 'I have a peanut allergy'. The company indicated it is developing a more robust query understanding model to address these nuances.