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DoorDash to acquire Deliveroo
- colesantiago 1y agoMost startups in the UK have either: 1. Sold to a foreign buyer 2. Shut down 3. Relocated to the US 4. Are stagnant The UK is up for sale (at a discount)
- fakedang 1y agoYou could say the same for traditional businesses. Or real estate. Or the farmlands. Even the political parties (for the princely sum of 50,000 quid). The UK is up for sale.
- graemep 1y agoThat is how globalisation is supposed to work. British companies have bought plenty abroad too:
- mytailorisrich 1y agoAnd yet the UK attracts twice the VC investments the next European country does.
- Bilal_io 1y agoIs it because of the language?
- carlosjobim 1y agoBanking and incorporation laws.
- walthamstow 1y agoLondon is the biggest tech hub outside of the US and one of the biggest financial hubs anywhere, plus Oxford and Cambridge are just 1 hour away by train.
- jjani 1y ago> London is the biggest tech hub outside of the US You must be excluding China there, as it alone has multiple tech hubs that make London look meaningless.
- walthamstow 1y agoWhich Chinese city is bigger than London in VC money?
- jjani 1y agoTech hub != VC money.
- walthamstow 1y agoRead the thread again. Since you haven't given your any metrics of your own, the default is the one already in context of the thread.
- jjani 1y agoFair enough, though VC hub would've been a more apt phrasing then. I just mentioned it because in terms of actual tech development going on, the gap between 1. SV / China and 2. anywhere else (including London) is so absurdly vast it's almost meaningless to be 2nd in VC investment, you might as well be 10th.
- darth_avocado 1y agoIt is a global phenomenon and is a result of how capital markets work. When you have money, it’s easier to make more money by gobbling up assets. US has capital more readily available to try new things, fail and eventually build massive successes. The successes then get reinvested in the form of even more capital. When Manchester United is owned by US billionaires, everything else is up for grabs.
- Argonaut998 1y agoFirst FreeNow and now Deliveroo. So much for European independence from US companies. It’s a wonder why these sales were approved in this climate.
- StopDisinfo910 1y agoDeliveroo is a UK company. It doesn't matter to the EU. It's also very much non strategic so I don't see why it would be blocked either way.
- graemep 1y agoThe GP said European, not EU. Its a concern in the UK too.
- StopDisinfo910 1y agoThere is no such thing as European independence. Europe is a continent, not a political entity. The EU is a political entity which happens to be reconsidering its independence from the US. The UK very much is not and is kowtowing favours hoping to get a good deal.
- graemep 1y agoYes, but the comment said "European" nonetheless. "European" describes multiple political entities each of which has similar concerns. The only one of those entities that has actually made any progress towards independence from the US is Russia.
- prmoustache 1y agoI don't think UK has similar concern as the rest of the UE.
- graemep 1y ago
- Spivak 1y ago> We’ll cover more than 40 countries with a combined population of more than 1 billion people, enabling us to provide more local businesses with the tools and technology they need to thrive,” said Tony Xu, CEO and Co-founder of DoorDash. This makes zero sense to me for a logistics company specializing in local to local deliveries. Being bigger in a given geographic area grants some benefits of scale and efficiency but being in Seattle and Bangkok there's really no difference than two separate apps. Just with the nature of the business you probably want this to be as local as possible so the profits aren't siphoned out of your community.
- like_any_other 1y ago> Being bigger in a given geographic area grants some benefits of scale and efficiency And dictating terms to local restaurants and delivery workers, with the threat of shutting them out of the largest market.
- ta1243 1y agoBoth my local Indian and Chinese use justeat. I don't select them because they're on justeat, I use justeat because it has them. If they changed to another platform then I'd simply move to that platform. Of course these companies did deliveries far before techbros decided to "disrupt" the industry.
- like_any_other 1y agoThat's great. Wanna bet the future of your family business on the great majority of consumers acting like you, and only a negligible number being steered by convenience and habit?
- Marsymars 1y agoBased on what I see on my local Uber Eats, it’s mostly delivering food from low-quality ghost kitchens and McDonald’s to people who can’t be bothered to find anything better. I’d find it too depressing to run any kind of family business that involved food delivery.
- morpheuskafka 1y agoNote that Deliveroo’s Hong Kong business was sold to Foodpanda a few weeks earlier. So it looks like DoorDash only wanted to buy certain markets.
- bastawhiz 1y agoIt makes sense that they wouldn't buy the HK business. Operating in HK essentially means entering the Chinese market, which feels like a bold responsibility for Doordash to take on. Better to let a company that's better positioned to buy out that part of the business.
- AStonesThrow 1y agoInterestingly, here in the Phoenix market, with plenty of competing delivery services, there is at least one Chinese native service that competes with the “round eyes”. Next door in Mesa, there is a significant designated Asian Quarter. So there is a high concentration of Asian restaurants and grocery stores. On a few occasions when ordering DoorDash from one of the big Chinese places, someone from the Chinese service delivered it instead; all receipts were printed in Chinese and sometimes I apparently received someone else’s order entirely. I believe they did this on purpose to promote use of that native service for this set of restaurants. Unfortunately I don’t feel like reaching out to them or installing their weird Chinese language app, so I decided to simply steer clear of those most authentic restaurants instead.
- bastawhiz 1y agoFrom a business standpoint, operating in China means basically every aspect of your operations need to be duplicated and built from scratch. Accounting, legal, compliance, engineering. People in China don't use the same payment methods. Hiring people is different. The ability to reuse your existing business knowledge and infrastructure is completely kneecapped.
- decimalenough 1y agoYou're likely referring to HungryPanda (熊猫外卖), which has carved out quite a niche in this and now operates across the US, Canada, Australia, Asia (outside China), Europe, etc. https://www.hungrypanda.co/ https://www.hungrypanda.co/
- putpoointheloo 1y ago[dead]
- Raed667 1y agoIt is inevitable for DoorDash to make tipping an even more annoying and intrusive part of Deliveroo. I can't wait to see how europeen users react to that.
- pluc 1y agoThese things are omnipresent in European capitals, it's quite striking. It might be inconvenient but it's not gonna stop people any more than the privacy concerns of the apps do.
- Raed667 1y agoI live in France and use Deliveroo (or UberEats some rare times) maybe once a month. There is already a tipping UI in the app, but it is not intrusive, nothing as aggressive as what you'd experience in the US where you're inclined to pre-tip even before the delivery happens. As for the capitals, yes it is becoming a thing but from my personal experience it is limited to touristy places
- n_ary 1y agoTipping is NOT omnipresent in the European capital I live in. Of course some apps have tipping options but I never found correlation in service quality to tipping. On the contrary, when I tipped, service quality was “less optimal” and I noticed visible entitlement. That being said, it is cultural norm here to tip by rounding up the order(say total is 2.59/ you tip by asking to make it 3.00/) when you are ordering in person and the service is/was good and the food is/was also good quality. Alternatively, in some restaurant, it is not usual to tip as order is collected by someone near the cash register while served by someone else entirely and someone else is preparing it. Once you are done eating, you return the dishes and go home, so there is no option to tip as you simply don’t tip at the prepayment step because you don’t know the food and service yet, you don’t tip the server as they simply bring the food and walk away.
- pluc 1y agoI don't know why both replies are about tipping when I didn't mention it at all. I meant these delivery drivers are everywhere. I've never used these data-sucking app so I don't know anything about them.
- omneity 1y agoInternational operations? Is DoorDash entering new markets?
- lurk2 1y ago[flagged]
- modeless 1y agoThey ought to rename themselves Deliveroo. It's a better name.
- gorgoiler 1y agoThis is disappointing from an innovation perspective. I know Deliveroo are just there to make money but they were uniquely positioned to do something transformative with their apps over the past ten years. Instead, we’ve basically seen little to no innovation on the consumer product other than an expansion from restaurants to now including grocery deliveries and group ordering. What about including a human, social element? Deliveroo could have been a channel for building a relationship between customers and Frankie’s Pizza where I could hear about upcoming specials, promotions, news about their expansion to a second location etc. There could be an integration with power users (superhosts, sort of, but the analogy isn’t exact) where consensus can form around who really is the best Chinese food in town. Let’s get the hygiene rating of the kitchen front and centre too (perhaps they do this in some markets?) For the riders, why has there never been a successful internal commitment to building a positive human workforce on the city streets? I feel like the brand started that way with their iconic jerseys and oversized food boxes but devolved into freelancers of the lowest common denominator. When my orders started arriving 50/50 in a just eat thermal bag, it really drove home the point that these services are never about long term value for the human workforce. We are now haggling on price in an auction against everyone else in the same way airline flights compete solely on price. When that happens, just as with airlines, any notion of a quality product or differentiation on service goes down the drain. It’s as if the major component of service differentiation is the lower price which is such a shame when there’s so much opportunity to shine as a food service app. If these companies truly do want to race to the bottom as generic low latency courier services then perhaps we will hopefully see them exit the app layer and solely occupy the transport layer, leaving space at the app level for someone who cares about the state of restaurants, food, and quality, leaving the delivery part to the auction apps. I’d much rather have a high quality integrated service but if we’re obviously not going to get that then the sooner they stop trying the better.
- prmoustache 1y agoI never understood why these delivery services are popular. Yes people are lazy. But lazy to the point of paying an additionnal fee to be waiting twice the time it gets to fetch the same food yourself and receive dishes that are cold instead of hot? What is the incentive really? If only those delivery services would use devices that keep food warm and deliver from somewhere far from home, I would maybe understand, but they aren't even available in a wider than a small radius around your house, so it is always more convenient to walk/cycle/drive to wherever you would order that food anyway. The only ones that do it relatively well are pizza joints and they usually have their own delivery service so you don't even have to use these apps.
- adzm 1y agoMy car broke down and it's taking forever to fix! Delivery services have made this much less of a problem.
- alt227 1y ago> Yes people are lazy. You dont seem to understand just how lazy people are.
- ghaff 1y agoThey are and I include myself in this category every now and then. But even when I had to go into an office every day, I had quite a few things I could toss into the oven or skillet and have ready in a few minutes. Have some friends over and want to get a couple pizzas that everyone is happy with? Sure I get that rather than someone having to go out and pick them up. But, as a routine thing, I've never gotten the attraction of delivery.
- aaronbaugher 1y agoSame here. I prepare 2-3 meals for myself every day. Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs. It took maybe 15 minutes, and for part of that time I was also checking emails and getting dressed for the day. For lunch I'll throw together a salad in a few minutes. Meal prep just isn't the hardship people seem to think it is, and by doing my own, I spend about a tenth as much on food as my co-workers who get everything delivered. That doesn't mean I begrudge them their use of these services. If that's what they want to spend their income on, that's their business. I just think it's foolish and based on misconceptions.
- ksynwa 1y agoI wish these apps allowed ordering takeout.
- walthamstow 1y agoYou can do that on both Deliveroo and Uber Eats in the UK I'm not sure why anyone would pay a 30% markup vs restaurant menu + fees to pick it up themself though
- voidUpdate 1y agoI've never understood why no delivery app driver can find my flat, despite me clearly marking its location with a pin, making a note of where I am, and making sure that when you put my address into google maps, it points directly at my flat. Every single delivery driver has to phone me and ask where I am while they stand on the other side of the road, looking at a house I don't live in. Are they seriously all this incompetent?? </rant>
- doom2 1y agoMy building is at the end of the block but all the delivery apps think it's in the middle or towards the other end even though when you put my address in Google Maps the location is correct. So I've taken to standing outside when the driver is close and flagging them down.
- voidUpdate 1y agoThat's what I have to do as well. I'm not sure what the purpose of the "here is exactly where I am" map thing on Deliveroo is if they just completely ignore it, as well as the delivery driver instructions
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- okdood64 1y agoA lot of them just completely ignore the written instructions and map.
- mrguyorama 1y agoThe apps select for people who can do the most deliveries per unit time, because that's the only way to actually make anything like a living out of these apps. People who are considerate, pay attention to instructions, care about your food, etc, can't afford to continue working, because they don't deliver often enough to afford rent. The point of an auction model like these apps use is to drive down labor prices to the lowest bidder. There's no force pushing quality up, because people cannot ban certain "known bad" drivers and the rating system is non-functional. You will only ever get laborers who don't have better choices to sell their labor to. Specifically, the apps don't care about bad service, because it empirically has not stopped people from ordering. People will literally have a delivery driver eat the meal they paid 2X for and still order again from that service, because the entire system provides plausible deniability that "surely that was a fluke and this time I will have a different, better driver, right?" American consumers are insanely un-discerning. They are willing to pay huge markups and get radically bad service on a burger and fries for whatever reason. Also consider how many of the people working this "job" literally cannot read english.
- Frieren 1y agoThese purchases only goal is to reduce competition and create monopolies. And the some people will defend the companies with "but if they are the best why should not be a monopoly?". The easy answer is that they are bad but just purchased their monopoly with investor money. Capitalism is dying.
- dragonwriter 1y agoMergers and acquisitions working the way mergers and acquisitions have always worked is not "capitalism is dying".
- BiteCode_dev 1y agoIn France we have still a bit of competition with a super small company called delicity. They have surprisingly survived the past few years by making drivers a priority. Basically, all drivers recommend delicity in my area because they pay more, and they tell restaurants to sign up. Don't know how they are going to compete now.
- techn00 1y agoI recently found out that Wolt (being available in lots of european countries) is also owned by DoorDash
- panick21_ 1y agoYeah Capitalism is dying sure, because one less food delivery app. Its not like there are likes 100s of places or 1000s ways to get food. People really love to complain about everything.
- gregorvand 1y agoHaving lived in NYC, Hong Kong and Singapore, the best system around all of this is .. Singapore hawker center. Turn up to somewhere ~10 mins or less from your location. Have a great meal for $5 (US) or less. Continue No delivery fees, delivery emissions or waste. Talk to people... The list goes on.
- valzam 1y agoDanish culture has the concept of a work canteen as a basic expectation in any work arrangement, no matter the size of the company. I don't know why this isn't more popular everywhere else. Even if I had to take a slightly lower pre-tax salary I'd love not having to get takeout all the time.
- kawsper 1y agoI’ve worked several places, and it’s only the bigger companies that have a canteen. Most smaller places it is “bring your food” or they get food in from a caterer to set up in the break room.
- ghaff 1y agoOr, if they're in a reasonably dense area, people go out to a nearby restaurant. Bring your own lunch has almost certainly declined over time. During the 10 years or so I worked for smaller companies in cities, it seemed as if going out for lunch with coworkers or otherwise was pretty much the norm. (Otherwise there were company cafeterias at the larger firms.)
- FlyingSnake 1y agoDoordash and the Pizza arbitrage is a mandatory read on the economics of the delivery apps. https://www.readmargins.com/p/doordash-and-pizza-arbitrage https://www.readmargins.com/p/doordash-and-pizza-arbitrage
- Havoc 1y agoUgh. Deliveroo is a pretty borderline proposition as is already. Can’t imagine this will improve it If it wasn’t for Amex discounts I wouldn’t use it at all
- affalytics 1y agoProbably a needed move (and timely with the recent upsurge in Reform UK wins). Deliveroo has been running on a regulatory arbitrage -- it got to decent size in the UK due to lax laws on low quality/illegal immigration. If that has an expiry date approaching (it looks like it does), to maintain its scale it has to plan for a technological shift in the way it operates -- it is too small to do that by itself. DoorDash isn't.
- sefrost 1y agoMaybe the reason your comment has been downvoted is because people on HN aren’t aware of the intersection between UK employment law, specifically independent contractors substitution rules, delivery apps and modern slavery. An easy to follow starting point here for people interested: https://archive.ph/2024.03.15-193026/https://inews.co.uk/news/delivery-riders-account-sharing-facebook-black-market-2957089 https://archive.ph/2024.03.15-193026/https://inews.co.uk/new...
- macsparrow 1y agoInterested to see how this plays out. Deliveroo has been on a downslope for a while; exiting international markets and losing home market share. And despite DoorDash's US dominance, they still haven't made significant growth with their international operations.
- dagw 1y agostill haven't made significant growth with their international operations DoorDash operates under the brand Wolt in Europe, and based just on how much I see their branding on delivery people around town, they seem to have grown quite a bit and the past couple of years.
- macsparrow 1y agoThat's fair, and I understand their international dynamics, though brand <> growth. They've been active outside of N.America for >5 years and aside from expanding their geo footprint, they're still far from winning in most/ all markets. Which is surely the aim.
- antonyh 1y agoHere in London, we've already boycotted all the services except Dominoes. Poor practices, delivery to wrong addresses, cold food, worse quality compared to eat-out, and items often missing. It's quicker and better for me to hike up the hill and eat the same food than to deal with all the nonsense. Deliveroo was particularly bad. On top of that, it's restaurant prices for take away food. There's no advantage for me.
- tnel77 1y agoMy neighbor has delivery (sometimes two separate drivers/services at a time when him and his wife want different types of food) at least 3 times a week. To each their own with their finances, but I just can’t bring myself to pay all of the extra fees. Also, the food is usually listed at a higher price to make up for the cut the various apps take. I’d rather just call the restaurant directly and get it myself. For some of these restaurants, the savings is 20-35% by just grabbing it rather than using a delivery app.
- precommunicator 1y agoSo your time has no value (not just going there and back, but preparing to leave, dressing, undressing etc.)? Your car/other transport is completely free? I wonder what's the difference, but I've calculated for myself a while back and going to a restaurant just isn't worth it. For me often even if I literally drive by a shopping centre when this restaurant is, I would just order on my phone instead and have it delivered to my home. It takes so much time to park in multi-story garage, then go like 200+m from my car to this restaurant (the only Burger King in my city) and back, wait for the order... Doesn't make sense for me, I hate this time wasting system. But now Uber Eats announced the One will only cover half of the delivery fee, so looking at the trend of enshittification from now in it soon might be just worth it...
- Sander_Marechal 1y agoNot OP, but when I order take out, I usually pick it up on my way from work. It hardly takes any extra time or mileage. It's often faster than ordering delivery. Also, somehow with delivery the food is always colder than when I pick it up myself.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 1y agoTime? I cook a lot. I'd argue time spent showering, shaving, cooking, etc. can be useful and relaxing "thinking" time. These are only a chore if you have the wrong mindset.
- 1y ago
- SirMaster 1y agoI don't really understand the appeal of these delivery services. Whenever I try them my food usually arrives cold and more than once has apparently gotten stolen and then I have to spend a bunch of time with delivery people messaging me saying the food is not there, and then have to talk to customer service to get a refund. On top of that they practically double the cost of the already expensive food it seems to me.
- dfxm12 1y agoI'm with you. Maybe the appeal on the restaurant side.
- atomicnumber3 1y agoThat's my 2c. I've used it only twice in the past several years: - one when I had the flu recently and was literally, non-hyperbolically barely well enough to operate the app enough to get food (for my family, too - not for me) - once when i was out of town on business, and my previously-arranged food for my family back home fell through one day. All your points are why I don't use it: it's already barely food (fast food), arrives cold, delivery issues, and EXTREMELY expensive. And in an era where, despite multiple raises, due to inflation I am STILL not making more CPI-adjusted income than I was in 2019, I'm not about to be lifestyle creeping for shitty cold wendy's.
- bombcar 1y agoMy experience is similar. Unless it's something that delivery was solved for (e.g., literally Dominos or Chinese) it arrives in just an embarrassingly bad condition.
- extr 1y agoIf you live in a metro area it's really not like that. Prices are higher but my credit card gives me free Uber One, so fees + tip are managable. Plus Uber/Postmates offer (at least for me) extremely aggressive coupons pretty often, 20-40% off. Food arrives in 20-40 minutes. Don't order things that don't travel well (eg: fried food). Order enough that you'll have leftovers and can amortize the delivery cost over multiple meals. We probably order delivery at least once a week. Usually a big batch of indian, chinese, a ton of tacos/rice/beans, etc. Stuff that keeps well. Then we'll have it for at least 2 meals each. I don't feel like it's that ridiculous honestly.
- matthewmorgan 1y agoLast time I used deliveroo I got a spam/scam phone call 20 minutes later. I presume the drivers sell customer names, addresses, and phone numbers.
- daveoc64 1y agoThese apps don't usually give the driver or restaurant access to the customer's phone number. They use a proxy system where the driver has to call a standard number provided by the app and then input a code to identify the specific customer. That's typically only available while the order is in progress.
- matthewmorgan 1y agoDo you know for sure that's the case for deliveroo?
- daveoc64 1y agoYes. I have been called by a variety of restaurants and drivers 7 times since March 2023 while using Deliveroo - who all came through the same London phone number. I don't even live in London. A search online for the number (020 3871 3395) shows that others have been called by both drivers and restaurants on this number. [1] [1] - https://who-called.co.uk/Number/02038713395 https://who-called.co.uk/Number/02038713395
- matthewmorgan 1y agoHow does the fact that you can't see their number imply that they can't see your number?
- p1dda 1y agoIt's junk food people, don't eat it!
- olelele 1y agoI rode for deliveroo for about a month and a half before they got out of Dodge in Europe due to breaking employment rules. The good riders who joined early were making ridiculous amounts of money in the beginning. When I came on the rider pool was diluted and it just got worse.
- NoPicklez 1y agoInteresting titbit, Deliveroo doesn't exist in Australia due to high running costs
- patcon 1y agoWhy is anti-trust not kicking in? Come on Britain, why not keep your companies locally-owned. We do not need all these rent-seeking companies buying one another. Enter the market as a competitor or fuck off