Macro trends and statistics of the industry

 

This section analyzes the macro trends behind delivery apps and riders, mainly using data from Statista. This section will first argue how the food delivery industry is a large and rapidly growing industry, hence this blog’s attention to food delivery riders is important to society today. Then, this section will compare the status of food delivery industries in the US and in France, as this blog analyzed sources from both countries. Finally, this session would briefly examine the current landscape in the food delivery industry, and the impact of the pandemic. 

The food delivery industry is already a highly developed industry, totaling into a few hundred million dollars of revenue across the world in recent years. It can be observed that it is popular not only in more economically developed countries, but also highly used in less economically developed countries, especially in Asia. 

Over recent years, there is an increasing percentage of users using platform-to-consumer delivery instead of restaurant-to-consumer delivery, meaning that the analysis of food delivery platforms is becoming increasingly important.

Interestingly, the growth rate of the food delivery industry is stable and remarkable across continents and countries, according to Statista. Here, by using expected revenues in 2024 projected through Statista’s mathematical model, it can be seen that the European market is expected to have the highest growth potential, of 11.6% from 2019-2024. 

Overall, quantitative data attests to the centrality of food delivery in our daily experience, and hence contributes to the digital culture in our societies.

This blog mainly utilized academic articles that analyzed France and USA, accompanied by some examples in the UK, China and other European countries. Given this focus on France and the US, this section will examine the particularities of these two regions.

Although the current US market is significant larger than the French market, analysts are more optimistic when projecting the growth of the food delivery industry in France. Compared to other European countries, France is expected to have the highest growth rate of 12.9% from 2019-2024. This is significantly higher than the 7.9% Projected for the US.

Compared to France, the US has a larger proportion of female users of food delivery services (52.5% in the US, 50% in France), and a higher percentage of low-income users (37.3% in the US, 33.0% in France). France has significantly more younger users of 18-24 years old (26.8% in France, 20.6% in the US). These differences in demographics shows that in these two countries, the culture of consuming delivered food differs slightly.

Finally, the most popular food delivery platforms and companies differ across countries. In France, there is a much higher tendency to utilize a food delivery platform than directly calling the restaurant. There is also high competition among platforms in France, hence they would be competing to attract more consumers with faster speed and lower prices, further increasing the pressure on riders.

Under COVID 19, there is an increase in demand for food delivery overall, but reports have been showing that there are also risks of risking consumer dissatisfaction if markets are not ready to face this increase in orders. Certain platforms are starting to adjust their policies to promote for safety measures or to increase their consumption. For example, Deliveroo made policies in Hongkong to reduce the cost of deliveries to help both consumers and companies during the Pandemic.

In the future, given the persistence of the COVID19 challenges, there might be further changes to food delivery platforms and the experience of riders. This may lead to new changes in the digital culture formed around the users and riders.