Rocket Internet is known for its speed in imitating a number of startups. Following Pinspire, Zalora, and Lazada, the company introduces foodpanda simultaneously in a number of Southeast Asian countries. Aside form Indonesia, foodpanda which is headquartered in Singapore, is also available in Malaysia, Thailand, and The Philippines. foodpanda is a food delivery service for restaurants which does not have its own delivery service. This idea doesn’t seem to be popular as yet among Indonesian startups but foodpanda will be facing some competition in some of the other countries. Local restaurants with online order and delivery service that I’m aware of are large franchises such as Hoka-Hoka Bento and PHD (Pizza Hut Delivery).
In Indonesia foodpanda has signed on a number of restaurants. To order using foodpanda, you enter your postal code or the name of your area and it will then display a list of restaurants that serve your neighborhood. At the moment the list of restaurants are concentrated on the central area with very few serving the outskirts. foodpanda offers restaurants a chance to join its service through its contact email address or via snail mail.
Unlike daily deal sites that offer massive discounts to attract customers, prices of food ordered through foodpanda does not differ at all from the actual prices at the restaurants, so it really is no more than a delivery service, similar to PesanDelivery although PesanDelivery does not only deliver food.
While foodpanda doesn’t explicitly say that it is part of Rocket Internet, SGEntrepreneurs noted that the companies are linked. We came across the LinkedIn profile of Christian Sutardi, business development managet of Rocket Internet Indonesia for foodpanda.
It is interesting that this delivery idea has yet to be explored further by local startups. Will foodpanda become the leader in this field before other startups follow suit? What’s next for Rocket Internet? We hear that it may be trying its hand at online furniture sales next.
