Wow, 30%? So restaurants that use deliveroo I should be able to ask for at least a 20% discount for collecting food? Sounds like Groupon's modus, once the restaurants realise they're giving away such a large part of their profits surely they stop using them? Isn't it cheaper to have your own delivery people?
Edit: Thinking about it, if I order pizza for £20, the company adds £2.50 for delivery. So £8.50 is being spent on delivery (?) .. a normal taxi is about £5 for that trip; an Uber or similar must be cheaper still?
a normal taxi is about £5 for that trip;
an Uber or similar must be cheaper
Uber's fares are subsidised (59%) by their VC funding [1], so they make a poor long-term comparison. Expect them to either corner the market, at which point fares go up, or run out of runway.
The cost of sales and operating expenses seem non-sensical. What are Uber's cost of sale? What are it's operating expenses? How are they different?
If Uber takes a 20% cut, the only cost of sale I can't see is credit card costs. Everything else - including servers - is just an operating expense.
More than likely the lifetime value of a ride sharing customer is huge, so rather than subsidising riders, they are likely front loading acquisition costs, and hoping to make it back in lifetime value. That seems to me a pretty darned solid strategy.
Edit: Thinking about it, if I order pizza for £20, the company adds £2.50 for delivery. So £8.50 is being spent on delivery (?) .. a normal taxi is about £5 for that trip; an Uber or similar must be cheaper still?