Delivery Hero

Delivery Hero is one of the largest food delivery platforms in the world. The competitive moat that the company has created is impressive, and its position is continuing to strengthen. The network effect is a key barrier to entry for competitors: as more restaurants join Delivery Hero, the greater choice drives more customers to use the platform and to use it more often. In turn, this results in more restaurants choosing to join the network, thus creating a virtuous cycle. Delivery Hero is investing heavily in its business, primarily spending on marketing to grow the number of users at each entity in the group. This is because, in the long term, a mature market can sustain a single dominant local platform with a broad offering, leading to the capacity to make very attractive operating margins.

CEO Niklas Östberg describes Delivery Hero as “less of a company and more of a confederation”. Through strategic acquisitions, he has used strong local leadership teams to manage regions with the autonomy to cater to local tastes. For example, in December 2019, Östberg led the acquisition of Woowa Brothers in South Korea. Its founder, Bongjin Kim, now manages Delivery Hero’s Asian operations. Östberg has also shown impressive foresight in disposing of its UK and German operations to focus on markets in which it can win. 

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