Two brands from one company
Earlier, on August 23, VK announced the signing of binding documents that the company will acquire a 100% stake in the food and grocery delivery service, as well as withdraw from its membership in O2O Holding. Delivery Club scheduled later exchange “Zen” and “News” in Yandex resources. The transaction is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022.
After the deal is closed, Delivery Club and Yandex Food will move to a single technology platform. As a result, according to Yandex, both couriers and users will benefit – the first will be able to receive more orders in one area, and the second will increase the choice of business and speed of delivery.
Representatives of the restaurant business look at the deal with cautious optimism – the press service of the Shokoladnitsa chain stated that the services will be able to exchange their strength, hoping that this will give impetus to the entire market.
“Of course, this is an interesting deal. We believe that the tremendous experience and expertise of Yandex Food and Delivery Club colleagues can create synergies and guests will achieve a breakthrough in service and unique developments and features will be available to everyone and at all times. Shokoladnitsa representative said, “Both brands We also hope that healthy competition will continue in this way.”
About the intention to hold both brands before declaration Roman Maresov, CEO of Yandex Food, who will head the combined company, said, “After the agreement, Delivery Club will continue to operate under its own brand. The apps and website will remain so users won’t experience much change. We still need approval from the Federal Antimonopoly Service to complete the deal. Only then does the action take place. This should happen before the end of 2022,” he said.
Despite the termination of the joint venture, VK and Sber remain strategic partners. As a result of the split of O2O Holding, Sber will receive product delivery service from Samokat, the leader of darstor. As a result, a super-large player is emerging in the food delivery market.
Also, as previously written “Kommersan”, Sbermarket plans to launch its own delivery service from restaurants and cafes. Sbermarket has its own loyal audience, as noted by Kommersant’s interlocutor in the industry. According to him, the total number of active users of the service application on iOS and Android exceeds 2 million, Yandex Food – 5.5 million, Delivery Club – 6.9 million. next year or two” publication does not exclude resources for delivery from restaurants.
“Competition takes shape differently”
“Delivery Club and Yandex Food have already worked in a fairly close format, they are quite similar to each other. The merger will give restaurants greater access and enable them to develop more services for partners and consumers. I think this is a positive story. In this case, the market is afraid of monopoly and rising prices, but today the competition in the market is built in a completely different way, ”says Sergei Mironov, Ombudsman of the Moscow restaurant market.
The Ombudsman says that a few years ago, restaurants had and started using tools to organize their own deliveries, including instant apps. According to him, businesses with their own delivery can choose whether they want to deal with Yandex or Delivery Club.
Therefore, as the expert emphasizes, aggregators cannot dictate working conditions to restaurants. “As a result, delivery services are forced to offer some kind of bonuses, preferences and profitable programs,” the Ombudsman said.
Yandex promises that after the deal, Delivery Club partner restaurants will have more opportunities to attract customers. Using Yandex Delivery resources, they will be able to expand their delivery space and also have access to the Food marketing platform. This will allow them to promote their organization more effectively, communicate with customers, accumulate and accept bonus Plus points.
Demand for food delivery is now dispersed in favor of restaurants – according to a recent survey, 50% of respondents prefer to order directly from establishments. ROMIR. Only 26% of buyers choose delivery through aggregators.