The food delivery market has seen significant growth over the past five years. Led by platform-to-consumer services, such as DoorDash and Uber Eats, food delivery has expanded from takeaways to anything and everything, adding billions of dollars in potential revenue capture.
The network effects of more delivery riders, alongside route optimisations technologies, has enabled faster and cheaper delivery. This has created a flywheel effect for many of the food delivery operators, which continue to try and undercut competition on razor thin profit margins as they battle for market share.
Several of the aggregators (Just Eat, Grubhub) have recently incorporated this platform-to-consumer system, in which they are responsible for the delivery as well as the ordering process.
The past few years has also seen more consolidation, as the larger businesses attempt to reduce the amount of competition in the market.
COVID-19 has propelled the industry a few years into the future, as millions of people in lockdown ordered food online for the first time. Grocery delivery service Instacart said it achieved its 2022 goals in the third week of lockdown.
Uber Eats, Deliveroo and DoorDash all reported a massive acceleration in orders between February and March, as the world went into lockdown.
This surge in demand has cooled off a bit since 2020, although Deliveroo, DoorDash and Uber all reported higher revenue and gross bookings in 2021 than 2020. Several apps launched rapid grocery delivery services, to compete with Getir and Gorillas.
In 2022, valuations of most food delivery apps have declined significantly from 2020. Market sentiment has moved from growth to profitability, and most food delivery apps remained unprofitable throughout the pandemic.
In this sector analysis, we will look into operations in the China, Europe, United States and United Kingdom. China, the US and the UK are the three largest individual countries for food delivery, Europe, primarily from Germany, Italy and Spain, is an emerging market which could surpass the US in a few years.
Key food delivery statistics
- China is the largest market for food delivery, with a market size of $27.3 billion in 2021. Meituan and Ele.me control about 90% of all food delivery in the country
- The entire food delivery app industry is expected to reach $320 billion market size by 2029
- Uber Eats is the most popular food delivery app, Delivery Hero has the most collective users
- In the US, DoorDash is the most popular food delivery app, with over 50% market share
Food Delivery App Report 2022
Want to learn more about the food delivery app industry? Our food delivery app report includes breakdowns of all of the top apps by revenue, GMV and orders, alongside regional market share statistics, usage, and downloads.
Top food delivery apps
| Title | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| https://www.businessofapps.com/data/uber-eats-statistics/ | Uber Eats | The most widely available food delivery service, active in six continents and first or second in gross orders in most countries |
| https://www.businessofapps.com/data/just-eat-statistics/ | Just Eat | Leader of food delivery in the UK and active in Europe and Australia, also holds a stake in Brazilian food aggregator iFood |
| https://www.businessofapps.com/data/grubhub-statistics/ | Grubhub | Original aggregator in the US and with Seamless, controlled over 50 percent of US online food delivery up until 2018 |
| https://www.businessofapps.com/data/deliveroo-statistics/ | Deliveroo | The pioneer of platform-to-consumer in the UK, it now operates in 13 countries, competing with Uber and Just Eat |
| https://www.businessofapps.com/data/doordash-statistics/ | DoorDash | The current leader in online food delivery in the US, which also pioneered the platform-to-consumer model |
| https://www.businessofapps.com/data/postmates-statistics/ | Postmates | A subsidiary of Uber Eats since 2019, responsible for about 10 percent of online food delivery in the United States |
| http://takeaway.com/ | Takeaway.com | A European aggregator responsible (through subsidiaries) for most online food delivery in Germany, Netherlands and Belgium |
| https://www.deliveryhero.com/brands-countries/ | Delivery Hero | Through its many subsidiaries (including Food Panda), Delivery Hero has a controlling interest in food delivery platforms in over 40 countries |
| https://www.ele.me/ | Ele.me | Owned by Alibaba, Ele.me is one of the two major food delivery platforms in China. It has over 200 million active users |
| https://about.meituan.com/en | Meituan | The other half of the online food delivery industry in China. Tencent is the largest stakeholder, with a 20 percent stake |
| https://about.rappi.com/ | Rappi | Backed by SoftBank, Rappi has aggressively pushed into the South American market, currently active in nine countries |
| https://www.ifood.com.br/ | iFood | Brazil's most popular aggregator by a significant margin, accounting for over 70 percent of online takeaway orders in the country |
| https://www.zomato.com/ | Zomato | The most popular of the homegrown food delivery apps in India, which acquired Uber Eats India in January 2020 |
Food delivery revenue by country
China is ahead in total revenue for food delivery, at $27.3 billion in 2021. Meituan contributed to $15 billion of that revenue, as the largest food delivery app in the world by revenue and usage.
Food delivery revenue by country 2021 ($bn)
Projected food delivery market size
The food delivery industry is expected to grow to $320 billion by 2029. It saw its largest growth in five years in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Projected food delivery market size 2022 to 2029 ($bn)
Food delivery users by app
Delivery Hero, through its subsidiary brands of foodpanda, Glovo, PedidosYa, tabalat and Baedal Minjok, has the most active users. Uber Eats has the highest single app users, outside of China.
Food delivery users by app 2021 (mm)
US food delivery market share
DoorDash pulled ahead of the competition in 2020 and currently has 57 percent of market share in the US, the second largest market for food delivery.
US food delivery market share 2016 to 2021 (%)
Food delivery downloads by app
Delivery Hero is once again ahead in total app downloads, although Uber Eats had the most single app downloads by 26.5 million in 2021, with DoorDash in second place.
Food delivery app downloads 2021 (mm)
More Delivery App Data
- Postmates Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)
- Instacart Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)
- Deliveroo Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)
- GoPuff Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)
- Gorillas Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)
- Uber Eats Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)
- Grubhub Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)
- Getir Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)
- Rapid Delivery App Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)
- DoorDash Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)
