They have a weird priority in google and that’s their value.
Unless you know where to look you will not find your local restaurants website via google. You will be redirected to grubhub or equivalent by many dark patterns on your way to the direct website.
Try it yourself. Google ‘Thai spice’ (there’s a several thousand independent Thai restaurants by this name so it’s a good example). Scroll down past the door dash promoted adverts and such till you get a result for the actual nearest restaurant by this name. Usually under a ‘places’ section.
Click ‘order’. See that this is just a redirect for door dash, grubhub etc that add a markup to the restaurant direct ordering system.
In fact try to go to the actual website. Click the name of the restaurant in the places section after a google search. On mobile you now have a new google presented summary page with a prominent order online button which is again just a redirect to grubhub/doordash/etc. On a computer it’s slightly better. You can see a website button to order directly under the places section but it’s still second rated prominence compared to the prominence of the above services. On Mobile the pattern is dark as night.
Basically that’s the revenue source. It’s a link that’s overly prominent in google that ultimately simply orders via the restaurants website with a markup. It’s free money.
People will always have a reason to order online. Restaurants themselves bear the brunt of inflation more than anyone but essentially stealing a direct link to the restaurant, capturing all those online orders and added a markup is very easy and low risk money.
Unless you know where to look you will not find your local restaurants website via google. You will be redirected to grubhub or equivalent by many dark patterns on your way to the direct website.
Try it yourself. Google ‘Thai spice’ (there’s a several thousand independent Thai restaurants by this name so it’s a good example). Scroll down past the door dash promoted adverts and such till you get a result for the actual nearest restaurant by this name. Usually under a ‘places’ section.
Click ‘order’. See that this is just a redirect for door dash, grubhub etc that add a markup to the restaurant direct ordering system.
In fact try to go to the actual website. Click the name of the restaurant in the places section after a google search. On mobile you now have a new google presented summary page with a prominent order online button which is again just a redirect to grubhub/doordash/etc. On a computer it’s slightly better. You can see a website button to order directly under the places section but it’s still second rated prominence compared to the prominence of the above services. On Mobile the pattern is dark as night.
Basically that’s the revenue source. It’s a link that’s overly prominent in google that ultimately simply orders via the restaurants website with a markup. It’s free money.
People will always have a reason to order online. Restaurants themselves bear the brunt of inflation more than anyone but essentially stealing a direct link to the restaurant, capturing all those online orders and added a markup is very easy and low risk money.