People have had cars, addresses, and telephones for a century. Pizza and Chinese food have been showing up at people’s doorsteps for decades. Surely it seems like everything one would need to build a food delivery contracting company existed before the internet. What was missing that prevented me from ordering tacos by phone in 1995?
In: Economics
* More people live in dense cities, so it’s faster to deliver to them.
* Fewer people own cars so they need delivery.
* People have gotten used to delivery nowadays (e.g., food, Amazon packages) compared to going out to stores.
* It’s easier to coordinate the customer, delivery company, the restaurant, and the delivery person now because of smartphones and wireless internet.
* The gig economy has taken off and more people are choosing to do flex time work as delivery drivers.
* Soon self driving cars, drones, and other technologies will make the products even more economically viable. This means that investors are willing to put money into these companies even if they are losing money today in hopes that they can become the brand leader by the time the market really takes off.
Latest Answers