Foodpanda在泰国运营13年后关闭业务，引发行业关注。文章分析了Foodpanda在泰国市场份额下降的原因，指出除了Grab等竞争对手的优势外，Foodpanda自身也存在一些问题，如过早扩张到所有城市、仓促进入又退出1P速递业务、疫情期间过度烧钱获客以及快速放弃日本市场。文章还提到Delivery Hero曾考虑出售台湾业务给Uber，但最终被监管机构否决。全球外卖行业正在发生变化，美团、滴滴、DoorDash等公司都在积极扩张。

📉市场份额下降：Foodpanda在泰国市场份额落后于Grab、LINE MAN和ShopeeFood，缺乏强大的资金注入和有效的执行力，难以维持运营。

⚔️内外部挑战：除了Grab等竞争对手的优势，Foodpanda自身也面临内部问题，例如扩张速度过快，未能在大城市建立足够的运营效率。

🌏全球外卖格局变化：美团进军巴西，滴滴重启巴西外卖业务，DoorDash有意收购Deliveroo，全球外卖行业竞争加剧。

🇨🇳华人创业者优势：文章观察到全球外卖巨头，包括美团、滴滴、Grab等，都有华人创始人，这或许是他们在全球市场取得成功的一个因素。

Foodpanda, Delivery Hero’s Asia focused food delivery platform, shut down its Thailand operations last week – after 13 years of operations in the country.

Many of you know that I was involved in leading parts of the Foodpanda operations in 2015, when it was still a startup built by Rocket Internet. When the announcement of Thailand closure came, many of you reached out to me and asked what I thought about this move.

I have been travelling in China for a very fruitful immersion and only had the chance to read about it today. A few quick thoughts:

1. It is obviously a rational decision. We have estimated Foodpanda’s GMV market share to be 5% in Thailand, behind not only market leaders Grab and LINE MAN, but also relative newcomer ShopeeFood. Without strong cash infusion coupled with sound execution, it is very hard for Foodpanda to remain a going concern in Thailand;

   

2. It is quite unfortunate. The question is – how did we get here?

3. Foodpanda started in Thailand (2012) way before Grab (2018) and LINE MAN (2016). For a long time it had a market lead – a comfortable one. Delivery Hero IPO’ed in 2017, which allowed them to tap into public market funds way before Grab (2021) and LINE MAN (aiming for IPO soon);

4. In our first Food Delivery Platforms in Southeast Asia published in Jan 2021, we estimated Foodpanda’s 2020 market share was on par with Grab in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. In Thailand it was well ahead of LINE MAN. During subsequent years, we saw a steady decline of market share;

5. Part of this decline can be attributed to the natural advantages of Grab – a dominant ride hailing business, sufficient cash reserves, and fighting on the home ground. Grab also proved to be a very disciplined, if not necessarily fast moving, player. However, that alone will not explain Foodpanda’s continuous decline in market share;

   

6. In fact, many of the issues Foodpanda faced were internal (or maybe self-inflicted), and very similar to what Chinese tech giants face when expanding outside China. We have examined these issues through many case studies in the book Seeing the Unseen: Behind Chinese tech giants’ global venturing (now available in Chinese and Polish as well);

7. I could not get into more details about Foodpanda per se. But in addition to the firing the protesting employee incident, these are a few examples where things could have been better thought through:

   1. The expansion into all provinces and cities earlier than competition, before you have built enough volume, density and operational efficiency in capital mega cities;

   2. The rush into, and subsequent retreat from, 1P quick commerce;

   3. The rush to spend aggressively to acquire customers at the height of the pandemic, when there was a natural tailwind;

   4. The very quickly aborted expansion into Japan;

8. We once said (not jokingly) that DeliveryHero should shut all the operations in Southeast Asia, and double down in Taiwan instead:

   1. Foodpanda has a lead in the territory, whose economy is bigger than Thailand or Malaysia;

   2. Korean ecommerce platform Coupang, whose food delivery service Coupang Eats is chipping away Delivery Hero subsidiary Baemin’s market share lead in Korea, is also expanding aggressively in Taiwan;

   3. and unlike Hong Kong, Taiwan is a market where Meituan will very unlikely expand into because of political reasons.

9. They decided to do exactly the reverse: trying to sell its Taiwan business to Uber. We are sure that they had made sound calculations – as Uber also pledged to invest cash into Delivery Hero as part of the deal. Alas, nobody we knew in Taiwan believed that the regulators would approve this deal. Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission indeed rejected this merger – last Christmas day;

   

10. Globally, the food delivery sector is shifting. Meituan is entering Brazil after expanding into Hong Kong and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Didi is relaunching its food delivery business in Brazil in response and might be considering another market to counter Meituan; DoorDash is offering to buy out Deliveroo.

Have you noticed something in common with all these four companies (as well as three leading platforms in Southeast Asia)? Ethnic Chinese founders.

The post My thoughts on Foodpanda’s exit from Thailand first appeared on The Low Down - Momentum Works.