After disrupting flight search and insurance market, Google has jumped into the $370 billion online food delivery market by introducing a feature in mobile search, wherein users can directly order food.
As of now, this feature has been introduced in the US, which is expected to be rolled out globally very soon.
Google announced the introduction of this feature via Google+ post, where they said, “Whether you’re craving deep dish pizza or pad thai, starting today you can order food from some of your favorite restaurants directly from Google search results.”
A new button called ‘Place an Order’ has been introduced in all their mobile searches related with restaurant discovery and reviews, along with specific searches for a specific food. To make the process robust, Google has tied up with top 6 US food delivery companies, namely: Seamless, Grubhub, Eat24, Delivery.com, BeyondMenu and MyPizza.com.
They have categorically said that they are “looking to add more in future”.
Industry watchers are also saying that this is Google’s response to Amazon’s newly launched similar food ordering service called “Takeout & Delivery”. Although Amazon has only introduced this in Seattle, Google has debuted with entire USA.
Can Google Kill Online Food Delivery Startups?
Globally, online food delivery market is pegged at $370 billion, whereas in India, its value is estimated to be $14 billion or Rs 86,000 crore.
Right now, several startups in India are attempting to create a dent in this market with unique, innovative offerings. Some of these startups have raised venture capital as well, such as:
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YUMIST: $1 million (founded by ex-Zomato CMO)
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FRSH: $618,000
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HOLACHEF: $320,000
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SPOONJOY: $1 million+
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iTIFFIN: $1 million
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TINYOWL: $20 million
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FAASO’S: $20 million
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TASTYKHANA: $5 million
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EATLO: Undisclosed
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SWIGGY: $15 million
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Box8: $3.5 million
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GRAB: $1 million
Global online food delivery behemoths such as FoodPanda and JustEat have already entered the lucrative Indian market and expanding their base rapidly.
Even food/restaurant discovery app Zomato, which has been extremely successful in their niche and expanded into 21 countries, couldn’t resist the charms of online food delivery and jumped into the fray with an investment of Rs 300 crore, few days back.
Although Google will not take orders directly, as they have collaborated with specialists of this niche, there is a possibility of consolidation in this market in future. As we have observed in the past (in case of Google’s Flight search and Insurance experiments), they will first collaborate with the top 8-10 players, and redirect all search queries to their portals, thereby earning a commission in the whole process.
Indian startups which are into online food delivery need to analyze the changed market dynamism after the introduction of food delivery option directly in Google’s search results on mobile, as it has the power to disrupt the whole market, very soon.
