Grabfood Puts Other Food Delivery Players On The Backpedal

When ride-sharing platform Grab acquired the Southeast Asian operations of rival Uber, the deal also entailed the takeover of Uber Eats and its integration into the relatively newer Grab Food platform—and industry observers and analysts foresee a bleaker horizon for competitors like Foodpanda, Honestbee, and Deliveroo.

When ride-sharing platform Grab acquired the Southeast Asian operations of rival Uber, the deal also entailed the takeover of Uber Eats and its integration into the relatively newer Grab Food platform—and industry observers and analysts foresee a bleaker horizon for competitors like Foodpanda, Honestbee, and Deliveroo.

The combination of the two delivery platforms poses a more palpable threat to rivals because it helps cement GrabFood’s leadership position and shuts the doors on merger and acquisition deals critical for staying competitive, said Terence Lee, chief editor of Tech in Asia.

“Grab’s chances of success of becoming Southeast Asia’s de-facto mobile platform has improved significantly with the Uber deal, which means investors may be spooked about backing a lesser competitor,” said Lee. “Second, even if an acquirer is interested, the stock of these competitors may have dropped since then, which means they won’t be able to get favourable terms.”