The world is shifting to digital in many aspects, and the Covid-19 pandemic has only boosted it. The restaurants and eateries have started delivering online to stay operational and make the food reach customers, owing to Covid-19 restrictions.

The food delivery apps have played a vital role in keeping the situation afloat by enabling the customers to order food from any of their favorite places from their mobile phones. It has helped widen the number of geographies the restaurants can deliver food to. It has also facilitated the customers to order from restaurants farther from the location they are in.

Digitization of the services would only increase down the line. The demand for online food ordering would surge given the busy lifestyle and a lookout for ways to save time.

Globally, the online food delivery market size was $107.44 billion in 2019, and it is estimated to reach $151.3 billion by 2023 at a CAGR of 11.54%. [Source]

Here is the list of 6 food delivery apps you could order food online in Australia:


Menulog:



Founded in 2006 in Sydney by Mr. Dan Katz, Mr. Leon Kamenev, Mr. Kevin Sherman, MenuLog is one of the earliest online food ordering ventures in Australia. It has witnessed many ups and downs in its journey thus far. Since its launch in 2006, it is said to have delivered 22 Million orders to date. The company witnessed strong growth in the period after its launch and expanded its services to other parts of Australia like Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. It also expanded to New Zealand in 2012.

MenuLog merged with their rival EatNow in February 2015, making the combined entity the largest player in the market. In May 2015, MenuLog was acquired by the UK-based Food delivery venture called ‘Just Eat’, marking its entry into the Australian market. In 2019, JustEat merged with its rival ‘Takeaway.com’ and formed a combined entity called ‘Just Eat Takeaway’. Menulog thus is a subsidiary of the combined entity.

MenuLog continues to be a strong player in the market. It has over 15000 restaurant partners from Australia on its platform. During the pandemic, the demand for food delivery surged, and MenuLog announced that it is receiving a high volume of requests from customers and restaurants alike to join the platform.


Uber Eats:



Uber Eats has established its strong foothold in the food delivery space globally. It is the food delivery vertical of Uber- a ride-hailing service headquartered in San Francisco, USA. It is present in 45 countries and more than 6000 cities worldwide.

It entered the Australian market in the year 2016 and has marked a strong presence becoming one of the most preferred apps to order food online in Australia in a span of 4 years. Uber Eats has more than 22000 restaurants from Australia and New Zealand on its platform to order from.

Ordering any type of cuisine you wish to, is just a few clicks away.


Deliveroo:



Deliveroo is a UK-based food delivery company that stepped into Australia in 2015. Led by Mr.Levi Aron as the Country Manager until 2019, Deliveroo has established itself in 13 cities of Australia including major cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, and Brisbane.

Deliveroo has more than 11000 restaurant partners in Australia on its platform to order from. According to Business Insider Australia, the 10,000th restaurant to join the platform was Lucio Pizzeria. It had won the “Best Pizza in Australia” award at the World’s Best Pizza Championship held in Italy in 2018.

On Deliveroo, you can place your order both from local eateries and premium restaurants. The app enables real-time tracking of the riders and keeps you notified of the estimated time of their arrival, a feature generally available in all the major food delivery apps.


DoorDash:



DoorDash is one of the biggest on-demand delivery platforms in the USA and has recently launched in the Australian market. Founded by four friends at Stanford University- Mr. Tony Xu, Mr. Stanley Tang, Mr. Andy Fang, and Mr. Evan Moore in 2013 in Palo Alto, USA; DoorDash has become a household name in the USA for any on-demand delivery.

It started as PaloAltoDelivery.com shortly after two of its founders Tony Xu, and Evan Moore decided on it as a project during their college days. It was the interview with a macaroon shop owner in the region that revealed that many restaurants have been declining delivery orders. It struck a spark in Tony and Evan, who were looking for a business idea to help small businesses.

Starting with the founders delivering the orders themselves for almost two years, DoorDash has grown to become a strong player with more than 340,000 restaurants and merchants as partners on its platform. It also has more than 18 million customers and more than one Million delivery executives (named Dashers) on the platform. According to the interview on Nikkei Asia, DoorDash has captured 50% of the US on-demand delivery market. It is steering ahead of the competition against Uber Eats (26%), and GrubHub (16%).

DoorDash has entered Australia in 2019 and is currently available in Melbourne and Sydney for you to place an order for the food you wish to have from the comfort of your home.


EASI – Food Delivery:



Founded by Mr.Jie (Jason) Shen in 2015 as Melbourne Delivery to help out the restaurants with their deliveries across Melbourne, it has soon grown on to become a nation-wide app, and even expanded internationally. The venture was later renamed ‘Easi’.

It started with Mr.Jie selling his car and investing $20000 to start a restaurant. He then launched an app to increase the business of the same. Soon, other Asian restaurants in the region came on-board the app. Mr.Jie managed the deliveries single-handedly. He delivered food for other restaurants during the day and opened his restaurant at night.

The journey has taken off since then with 60,000 riders on its books, with 20,000 from Australia. Melbourne-born Easi is valued at more than $500 million and majorly offers Asian food for order on its app. Easi has expanded to Los Angeles, Tokyo, Vancouver, London, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and Osaka in Japan.

They have also started offering Pizzas and other cuisines to increase the customer base.


Zomato:



With the acquisition of Urbanspoon in 2015 for $60 Million, the India-based food delivery app Zomato forayed into Australia, the USA, and Canada markets. Zomato was founded by Mr.Deepinder Goyal and Mr.Pankaj Chaddah in 2008 as FoodieBay. It was rebranded to Zomato in 2010.

Starting as a restaurant-delivery platform, Zomato has quickly pivoted to the food delivery model in the countries it is operational in. According to the annual report 2019, Zomato is present in 10,000 Cities from 25+ Countries worldwide.

There are more than 25,000 Australian restaurants listed on the platform for you to order from.

Conclusion:

The food delivery apps provide a comfortable way to enjoy the delicacies of the favorite restaurants located near or far, from the comfort of your home. The Covid-19 pandemic has restricted travels and forced people to stay indoors, thus increasing the demand for online deliveries.

The Australian food delivery market is dominated by international companies such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo alongside home-grown platforms line Menulog. Other home-grown apps like EASI are rising to the competition. With the entry of Door Dash, the food delivery space is expected to get more competitive. Nonetheless, there is always room for more.

What are your thoughts on these Food Delivery Apps in Australia? Do let us know in the comments below.


Image Credits:

Image 1: Image by Aline Ponce from Pixabay

Image 2: Menulog

Image 3: Uber Eats

Image 4: Deliveroo

Image 5: DoorDash

Image 6: EASIImage 7: Zomato