An anecdote from Indonesia. One of the large on-demand companies moved into food delivery a few years back. Originally, the only cost was the (subsidised) price

An anecdote from Indonesia. One of the large on-demand companies moved into food delivery a few years back. Originally, the only cost was the (subsidised) price of transport borne by the consumer. There was no contract with restaurants. A driver pulled up and ordered a takeaway just like a consumer would. However after awhile, most businesses began to see a good proportion of their sales (& a lot of new customers) from these drivers. When the on-demand company started contracting restaurants with a mandetory 20% markup to the price of food, it was a no-brainer for the restaurants to go along with it. As a result, this food delivery business now subsidises the core rideshare business. At the end of the day it's eyeballs that matter, to both the restaurant and the on-demand company. And this is where the great divide between the super-apps and the delivery startups come into play. Trying to compete with one of these big apps is like trying to compete with Amazon with some niche e-comm site. Its possible, its just very, very difficult. And of course doesn't have anywhere near the same potential value.