Doordash is winning the battle of app based food delivery companies

The battle of the food delivery gig companies is one that has taken many turns the past couple of years. Although there are many food delivery apps, in reality it has been four which are known nationwide and have become the leaders of the food delivery app based gig economy. Those four companies are Doordash, Postmates, Uber Eats and GrubHub. We can actually break this down to three companies now as Postmates has been bought out by Uber.

 

The food delivery apps fight to the top

Over the past couple of years, the big four have all been pushing to become the number one food delivery app. All of these companies have worked hard and marketed their services hoping to become a household name. All of them have had some success, but having some success is not the goal for these companies.

These food delivery companies are all looking to crumble their rivals, and although the market share of each company has changed more than a few times over the past couple of years, it has seemed to stabilize for quite a while now. Currently, and for a good while, Doordash has led the way by making almost half of food deliveries in the United States. Uber Eats usually lingers in the 20 to 30 percent range and the acquisition of Postmates helps them a bit. Grub Hub has 20 percent of the market and has lost a lot of ground the past couple of years. In 2018 GrubHub had 50 percent of the market, but things have surely changed. The rest of the smaller companies share the 1 percent that is left.

Doordash is the number one food delivery app

Doordash has been the number one company for a while now, and they intend to stay where they're at. They were already at the top when they purchased Caviar in 2019, and I'm sure that they will continue their dominance in the food delivery business. The goal of every company with competitors is to make customers forget about the other guys, and that's what Doordash seems to be doing.

One thing that Doordash has to be credited with is their ability to expand. Doordash is available to customers in almost all of the United States. This was a very strategic move as throughout the years Doordash consecrated on not only large cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York City and Chicago. They also concentrated on lesser known areas with smaller populations of people. Doordash went places that other apps would not.

 

 

No matter where you are at, chances are that you can order Doordash. When I hear people talk about ordering food now, it is much more common to hear people say order Doordash instead of mentioning other companies. It's like the word Doordash is taking on a new meaning of its own to mean food delivery.

Uber should stay in the people moving business

In my opinion, Uber should just throw up the white flag and bow down to Doordash. I really don't see how Uber Eats will win this battle. Believe me they are trying. They purchased Postmates and that may give them a little lift, but let's face it, Postmates was struggling even with their dominance of the Los Angeles market.

Uber needs to focus on their transportation business. The word Uber has become synonymous with moving people around just as the word Doordash has become synonymous with food delivery. When people Uber, we know what they mean. We know they took an Uber cab from point A to point B. We think nothing of food delivery.

I don't see Uber Eats ever becoming a major threat to Doordash. I just don't see what they can do to persuade some of those Doordash customers to use their app. Uber Eats may have been grateful for the lift they received when the Corona Virus made a major negative impact on their ride hailing business, but none of this will help them in the long run. They need to figure out how to get those Doordash customers, and like I already said, I don't think there is anything they can do.

GrubHub can still control the food delivery market

Only a year or two ago, many thought that GrubHub would come out of this food delivery battle victorious. GrubHub was battling Doordash for that top position, but something happened and GrubHub fell while Doordash remained on top. GrubHub still has a large market share, but they will have to more than double their sales to get close to Doordash.

GrubHub is the only company here that enjoyed yearly profits until the last couple of years. They control the market in many major east coast cities including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston. Being from California, I'll tell you this, GrubHub really needs to expand on the west coast.

I have driven and delivered for GrubHub before, and the orders are there to keep you busy most of the time. When compared to Doordash though, it is nothing. With Doordash I can deny call after call and have one offer coming in one after another. With Grubhub, if you deny a call, there's a good chance that you'll be sitting around a while waiting for that next call. I assume in cities like New York and the others I just mentioned it's different and must be very busy. Again though, GrubHub should expand more, and not only to the major cities, but also the smaller towns.  <

Goodbye Postmates

Postmates as most know sold out to Uber for 2.65 billion in mid 2020. Uber Eats now owns Postmates and has been slowly phasing Postmates out. Postmates may have done the right thing by selling. They were not going to go anywhere and even though they were a large company, they were no serious threat to their competitors. I seriously think that if they didn't sell to Uber that they may have eventually went under. Again, a very good move by Postmates to sell.  

App based food delivery gig companies buying each other out

Buying out other companies is a business strategy to not only grow, but also to take out other companies that may be competitive with you. Doordash bought Caviar, which was not nearly as big as any of the big four, but Caviar certainly had a large customer base that Doordash gladly welcomed. Even though not available nationwide, Caviar had loyal customers in major markets such as Los Angeles. Again, Doordash was more than happy to add Caviar to their business.

Uber Eats went even farther than Doordash by purchasing one of the largest food delivery apps out there. Yep! Uber Eats went out and bought rival company Postmates which was a brilliant move that was beneficial for both companies. This move came after Uber tried to buy GrubHub, but the deal never went through. Uber even tried to merge with Doordash, but they did not agree on everything so that deal never went through.

It seems Uber is always betting on buying out companies. It amazes me that a company that never makes any money year after year can somehow purchase other billion dollar companies! Maybe I shouldn't just pick on Uber about that. These days it's being reported that none of these companies are making any money!