
Delivery Startups Face Road Bumps in Quest to Capture Untapped Market - pavornyoh
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/technology/delivery-start-ups-face-road-bumps-in-quest-to-capture-untapped-market.html?ref=business&_r=0
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nikcub
It is a 3-sided market with high acquisition costs and high churn on all three
sides - the restaurants, the drivers and then the users.

A better business model may be to focus on one of these and provide it as a
service to the others. ie. a driver/delivery network for restaurant
fulfillment.

Restaurants having to set themselves up on each platform seems like a waste -
there is no reason why a standards based interface for dispatch and
fulfillment couldn't be built.

You can then integrate the 'best of' for each component - ex. Yelp or Google
Ratings for finding restaurants & Amazon for local delivery

Being vertically integrated just doesn't feel like what this market will look
like in 5-6 years - too many challenges.

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abcampbell
The biggest problem with these business models, in the long run, is they all
target the same labor supply.

This is good for wages, but bad for their margins.

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marvel_boy
Not surprising. Business to Consumer(B2C) is one of the most difficult things
on earth.

