Tech News

How the apps promised the old idea of ​​Takeout

[ad_1]

At the beginning of this century, when Seamless was launched, mostly as a tool for offices to place high demand for restaurants and hosts, it was not registered as a threat. Neither Just Eat in Denmark (2001) or Grubhub (2004) or a bunch of others all began to swallow each other in mergers and acquisitions that read like a technological version of biblical birth predictions: “And Just Eat got Hungryhouse. By the hand of Delivery Hero, and merged with Seamless Grubhub, and invested by Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures in Just Eat, which created SkipTheDishes. “

As with man, the family of companies became more and more extensive and diverse. Here is a partial list of the main competitors and companies working in this field: Talabat, Snapfinger, Hungryhouse, Menulog, Eat24Hours, Ele.me, EatStreet, Eat Club, Munchery, Postmates, OrderAhead, DoorDash, ChowNow, Caviar, Foodpanda, Menu Group, SkipTheDishes, SpoonRocket, Deliveroo, Gopuff, Hello Curry, Foodora, Dunzo, Swiggy, Uber Eats, Wolt, TinyOwl, InnerChef, Maple, Tapingo, Rappi, Spring, Chowbus and Glovo. As they multiplied and merged, these companies collected more accurate and concise customer data, gathering information in a tool that could anticipate and meet customer requests, much more effectively than even veteran restaurants.

With the advent of the iPhone in 2007, after the 2008 recession, and a whole generation of young engineers mobilized to create apps in a slow-growing land to be the next Facebook, it was impossible to attack restaurants. A host that had a reservation book and a landline phone to compete with on-demand technology was suddenly in the pocket of every meal, providing data to Silicon Valley app companies. Within a few years, these companies knew more about the customers of a restaurant — what we wanted, when we wanted them, how much we were willing to pay — than a small business could ever have.

In 2016 some of these companies broke the news by stopping the unhindered growth so far. Before closing, Bento agreed that more money should be made in hospitality than on-demand shipping, SpoonRocket sold its technology to the Brazilian iFood chain and tried to sell Square Caviar to Uber or Grubhub.

As the third-party submission was not profitable, although many sales were announced, the conversation changed. The problem was not that the emperor had no clothes, that these companies — which were worth billions, were pouring in more investment money every day — had impressed restaurants and investors. Of course, providing food was not profitable. Not with human labor. When restaurant meals could reach our doors through drones, robots and car-driven cars, however, just then the sector would go from red to black. “If we don’t get it [autonomous car] nailed to the software, we won’t be around much longer, ”said Uber CEO Travis Kalanick USA Today In 2016.

All of these companies prefer to be known as a technology company, rather than a taxi or restaurant business. It’s true. They don’t provide food. Many of them outsource physical transportation to other agencies, such as Relay, Homer Logistics (purchased by Waitr) and Habitat Logistics. Bicycle and car couriers are never employees but “independent contractors,” and they give the company maximum exemptions from labor and labor laws in terms of hours, overtime, sick pay, and pay.

Committed to the legal fiction that their product is something other than shipping and that messengers are not employees, these companies ignore the details of the service they actually provide, reminding them that they bring you food. due to these, in a way that is difficult to quantify. “Grubhub helps you find and demand food from anywhere.” “Uber Eats is an easy way to deliver the food you love.” “Whatever you want, we get it. Request a post for yourself or friends and see if your Postmate brings you all the things you love in real time. ” The feat of copywriting is impressive, it means that they deliver without expressing food and thus avoiding the responsibility of identifying as a delivery company.

[ad_2]

Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button