Over the years there have been a number of startups which have looked promising initially but ultimately failed to deliver. PepperTap is a 2014 startup that belongs to this category. The online grocery delivery service came up with a great idea, in fact one which is extremely significant in the contemporary world. However, they couldn’t make it work the way would have liked it initially. Let us take a closer look into PepperTap’s journey.
PepperTap: A fresh idea in town
Back in 2014, there weren’t many online grocery delivery platforms as compared to the present day. The competition was really low, but the contenders made sure the market didn’t sway in anyone’s favour readily. Though one can say that the lack of competition can aid a business to fortify its position in the market, this unfortunately is not the case always and PepperTap happened to be one such exception.
The inception of PepperTap can be credited to the idea of saving people from standing in long queues in order to buy groceries. The idea was to get products ranging from groceries and essentials to consumables and condiments delivered right at the doorstep of consumers. Back then the idea was pretty fresh and hence drew a handsome amount from a various investors. Financial backing is crucial for any startup and PepperTap did well to earn that. What they didn’t do quite well was the execution of their plans with the help of that capital.
PepperTap founders Navneet Singh and Milind Sharma
PepperTap’s Mission Statement and its Outcomes
PepperTap aimed at providing daily consumables and groceries to households at unbelievable prices. Since their idea and concept were fairly new for the Indian scenario, PepperTap tried to ensure that high prices aren’t one of the reasons for their unsuccessfulness. This lead to them offering extensive discounts and price drops, something which would lure customers but make it difficult to sustain sellers. This proved to be effective initially but in hindsight was draining out the startup’s funds.
The fact that they didn’t have a proper inventory of their own unlike their competitor (Big Basket) added to their operational costs. PepperTap’s vision cannot be questioned but the way they ended up making hasty decisions is what led them to their downfall.
The failure of PepperTap can be credited to a number of factors but lack of planning and management turned out to be the most detrimental ones. Having started out with ample funds from its investors, While 2015 saw Venture Capitalists support a number of startups, by 2016 the statistics weren’t as favorable for startups. PepperTap was almost on the brink of using up most of the capital it started off with since the expenses were higher as compared to the profits.
Their expansion strategy was poorly executed amidst shortage of funds. The situations forced them to outsource most of their functional assets and pay for them eventually. This in turn added to their operational costs and eventually lead to the shut down of PepperTap’s services in 2016.
There were quite a few speculations regarding the Indian market being used to the traditional ways of buying groceries. The fact that the local Kirana wala offered free deliveries along with discounts to regular customers made them stick to their local vendors. Another aspect which can be considered is the importance of Grocery shopping as a recreational activity for most households. It is a ritual wherein buying groceries is best done in person and is a great way to get some fresh air as well. All these, in hindsight affected PepperTap along with its mismanagement and poor execution which ended them far from being a success story.
Thomas Cook Group was a British travel company which operated as both, an airline company and a tour and travel firm. The Group was founded after the merger of Thomas Cook AG and My Travel group in 2007.
However, the brand “Thomas Cook” is 178 years old and was trusted by travellers globally. Recently, Thomas Cook Group collapsed due to a lack of funds. They have announced their bankruptcy. We tried to find out what were the reasons behind the Thomas cook bankruptcy case. Here’s a Thomas cook case study or Thomas cook bankruptcy case study for you!
Thomas Cook Group collapsed on Monday, 23 September 2019. This caused 22,000 losing their jobs which include 9,000 people from the UK.
More than 150,000 travelers who were on holiday, lost their trip home.
On 26 September 2019, the British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced that they have scheduled over 70 flights on Thursdays (26 September) to bring back 16,000 travelers who were on their holiday to different countries. Their program would continue until 6 October. They have more than 1000 flights planned to schedule for 10 days.
We are sorry to announce that Thomas Cook has ceased trading with immediate effect.
The Travel Industry is one of the biggest service industries in the world. Over 1.45 Billion people travel in a year globally. It is expected that the number of travelers in 2019 will be 3% to 4% more than that of 2018. With the increase in the disposable income of people, the travel industry can expect to grow at a higher rate. Some of the few industries which are the pillars for the Travel Industry are:
Transportation (Flight, Trains, Car rental, etc.)
Accommodation (Hotels, hostels, camps, etc.)
Food (Restaurants, Clubs, Bars, etc.)
Entertainment (Shopping, Casinos, Concerts, etc)
Finance (Insurance, Banking, Loans, etc.)
Without all the above industries, it is not possible to imagine the travel industry in this era.
The following factors have either changed or promoted the travel industry in recent years:
Online Booking
With the help of the Internet, it has become so easy to access all the information and book everything online.
Personalized Experience
Many hotels now provide personalized services based on the choices of the customers.
Automation & Robots
The trend of making hotels automated with the help of machines and robots to serve people has changed the whole industry. Although, many people think that it would be creepy to be in such a hotel many travelers still looking for some new experience.
Influencers
There are a ton of influencers and especially vloggers who keep travelling and showing new places to people which influences people to travel more.
These were just a hand full of the reason but there are a lot of factors which promote traveling and Internet stays at the top.
History of Thomas Cook Group
Thomas Cook, Founder of Thomas Cook & Son
Thomas Cook Group is the oldest travel agency in the world which was founded in 1841. Thomas Cook founded the company by helping people travel by train. He was a part of the Temperance Movement (A movement against Alcohol) and arranged meetings for the movement and carried temperance supporters from one British City to another.
At the same time, he founded the Thomas Cook Travel Agency and worked as the middle man for the travellers. Around 1860, the company was arranging foreign trips and was the first one from the country to take people to the US & Europe. It even arranged many world tours for travellers.
When Thomas Cook was succeeded in arranging many trips, he became sure about this business and bought a shop on Fleet Street, London, and started selling travel accessories along with travel arrangements. In 1872, Thomas formed a partnership with his son and renamed the company to Thomas Cook & Son. Thomas’ son, John Mason Cook provided expertise for the commercials of the company.
Thomas Cook & Son office
Thomas retired in 1878 and John Mason and his son were now responsible for the business. By 1888, the company was able to establish its offices in various countries. By now, the company was developed in terms of its services. They were able to arrange many activities in other countries for their travellers like Opera, Mountain climbing, etc.
The company then ran by the family members only and remain the same until 1924 when it was renamed to “Thomas Cook & Son Ltd.” after getting limited liability status.
The third generation of the family was even more successful as travel became more popular. However, the company was sold to Hays Warf Cartage Company in 1942. After few decades, it was then acquired by the British Government and was renamed to “Thomas Cook Group Ltd.“
Between 1974 to 2001, Thomas Cook Group Ltd. was acquired by many companies until C&N Tourist AG acquired it and renamed it to “Thomas Cook Group AG“. Later in 2007, Thomas Cook Group AG was merged with My Travel Group to form “Thomas Cook Group Plc“.
Why Did Thomas Cook Collapsed?
Reasons Behind Thomas Cook Bankruptcy Case
Why Thomas cook failed? Some of the reasons which led to the failure Thomas Cook Group and caused Thomas cook bankruptcy case are:
Funding
The major and the most obvious reason for the collapse of Thomas Cook is that they were not able to secure the funding of £200 million or almost $250 million. If the company would have received the amount of funding, it could have easily survived instead of getting bankrupt but due to lack of funding led to the Thomas cook bankruptcy case.
The Debt
Thomas Cook had a debt of over $2.1 Billion. It is the reason the investors backed out of investing in the company. The bosses of Thomas Cook even met many lenders and creditors in London but failed to raise any funds. Again investors backed which led to the Thomas cook bankruptcy case.
The Model
The business model of a travel agency depends on segregating the different aspects of travelling and packing it into one travel package. However, with the easy and direct access to any service through the internet, the travel package, or going through a travel agency has become obsolete.
Airline Expenses
Thomas Cook was a service travel company that even provided flights to travellers. However, operating an airline is not an easy task. An airline company needs a lot of funds to bear its running cost. Costs like fuel, maintenance, crew, etc. need to be fulfilled.
Brexit
The company is calling it the top reason for the collapse. In May 2019, the CEO of Thomas Cook, Peter Frankhauser said: “the Brexit process has led many U.K. customers to delay their holiday plans for this summer.”
And of course, one reason for its failure is the common reason for most of the business failure, resisting change. Thomas Cook was unable to adapt the changes according to the new generation and ended up collapsing.
Even though the whole world is shocked by seeing the 178 years old company collapsed, Thomas Cook India is still doing business as always.
The reason behind it is that Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. was acquired by Fairbridge Capital Ltd. is a subsidiary of Canada-based company, Fairfax Group.
Hence, Thomas Cook India is totally safe and still operational. However, they have put this warning to let the users know that their company is independent of the brand of Thomas Cook.
When you visit Thomas Cook India website, it shows this message
Even though Thomas Cook India is still operational, they have seen a sudden downfall in their share price. Their share price decreased by 5.23%.
Conclusion
Thomas Cook has been a great business since its birth. The company changed the way people travelled. In the age when it was a luxury to travel to another city, the company made it possible to easily travel to other countries. Along with its travel business, it has also been a great financial company for travellers.
However, everything has an end. So, it is an acceptable truth and not a surprise that the company ceases to operate anymore. Even though the travel industry has grown as a whole, but it has also evolved in the process. So, if any company has to survive in any industry, they need to adapt change according to the generation. I hope you learned something in this case study of Thomas Cook.
For a long time there has been this general belief that there is no Android phone that can compete with the Apple Models based on quality, this is what OnePlus aimed to change ever since its formation. OnePlus Technology (Shenzen) Co., ltd simply referred to as OnePlus, is a Chinese smartphone and electronics manufacturer based in Shenzen, Guangdong, founded by Pete Lau (CEO) and Carl Pei (Drector) in December 2013.
As of February 2020, OnePlus is the top selling premium smartphone brand in India holding 33% of the total market share. Apart from smartphones, OnePlus also deals in other devices like earphones, chargers and Smart Television sets in over 340 countries. The story behind the formation and the motivation of the brand is a fascinating.
Here’s a thoroughly studied OnePlus Case Study that’s going to clear every doubt that you might have in your mind regarding OnePlus.
As mentioned OnePlus was co founded by Pete Lau and Carl Pei. At that time, Lau was the Vice President of OPPO and Pei was OPPO’s Global Marketing and E-Commerce Division Head.
OnePlus Founders
While they were visiting a Café with their colleagues from OPPO, they noticed that all of them were using Apple smartphones, the reason behind this was the common belief that Android phones were concerned with market share more than the quality of their products. They put forward the concept that based on product quality, there was no “second best” to Apple.
This is where OnePlus’s motto “Never Settle” originates from as it provides better options for the android users instead for settling for something lesser.
Having determined the need of a premium android smartphone line, the company then had to decide what features were to be implemented in their product lines. Their primary focus throughout the manufacturing process was on quality.
As Lau said “we will never be different just for the sake of being different.”
So the OnePlus production does not focuses on a ‘brand new concept that has never been seen before’ instead it gives more emphasis on improving the actual user experience in day to day life.
The first product of OnePlus was the highly awaited OnePlus One which was unveiled just 4 months after the company started on 22 April 2014. The model received a positive reception from the general audience.
Despite being about half the price of the other competitors, it performed on the same level and even higher. Although there were some technical faults and lower camera quality due to the low cost, it performed very well despite having a lesser availability than its closest competitor in the Nexus series.
It surpassed the expected limits and set a staple for the company upon which the further models were improvised. The later models of the smartphone included improvements on the previous models and received positive reception.
The company also introduced the T series starting from OnePlus 3 until 7 and the Pro Series starting from OnePlus 7 to 8. These models were limited edition variants to the core series designed for luxury users.
By 2020, OnePlus became the top selling smartphone brand in India. Some of the features that appealed to the masses were unique and handy build, continuous improvement in camera quality with every new model and an affordable price.
The company also announced its intention to venture into the Smart Television market in September 2018 starting with OnePlus Tv Q1 and the OnePlus TV U series.
Wireless chargers were introduced along with OnePlus 8 series and the wireless earphones, OnePlus bullets with the OnePlus 6 series.
In every product line, OnePlus puts product quality and affordability first all the while appealing to the different sections of the audience.
The pricing strategy of OnePlus focuses on the customers seeking high quality features in smartphones and other devices without spending too much into it.
Therefore, the company focuses on high quality manufacturing and a relatively low margin of profit, opting to utilize its savings in order to make the products available and affordable to more people around the world.
However, different countries have different prices depending upon various factors.
OnePlus Business Strategy In India
Over the years of its operation, OnePlus has used many innovative models and campaigns for the promotion of its products. The following are some of the popular promotional strategies and campaigns implemented by OnePlus,
Invite Only System
In order to manage the huge demand in the initial stages of its operation, OnePlus used an Invitation System, where the customers had to sign up for the purchase of OnePlus One at irregular intervals, they ended the Invitation System with the launch of OnePlus 3 which went on sale on an interactive VR (Virtual Reality) platform. OnePlus dubbed the event as world’s first ever VR Shopping Experience.
OnePlus started the Smash the Past campaign on 23 April 2014. As the name suggests, it invited a selected group of customers to smash their old phone in an effort to purchase the OnePlus One for just $1. However, this campaign didn’t work as planned because uninvited customers also started to smash their phones in videos that surfaced online and threatened the reputation of the company. As a result of this, OnePlus revised the rules thereby allowing the invited users to donate their old phones instead of smashing them. There were 140000 users and 100 were selected.
Ladies First Campaign
On August 13 2014, OnePlus started the controversial Ladies first Campaign, it involved handing the elusive invites to the female forum members first. The selection will be based upon the likes on their pictures with the logo of the OnePlus brand, however this received major backlash from the community and was pulled within hours of its launch.
Brand Ambassadors
OnePlus hired Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan as a Brand Ambassador for their promotion in India. And in May 2019 they hired Robert Downey Jr. for the said role.
Slowly but surely, OnePlus is becoming a household name in the smartphone market along with established brands like OPPO and Samsung especially in India.
However, due to the recent events that have strained the relationship between India and China that resulted in banning of various Chinese apps and products in India, the brand of OnePlus may be unaffected but the employment in its Indian stores may dwindle in the near future.
Frequently Asked Questions About OnePlus
How did OnePlus one start?
OnePlus Technology (Shenzen) Co., ltd simply referred to as OnePlus, is a Chinese smartphone and electronics manufacturer based in Shenzen, Guangdong, founded by Pete Lau (CEO) and Carl Pei (Drector) in December 2013.
While they were visiting a Café with their colleagues from OPPO, they noticed that all of them were using Apple smartphones, the reason behind this was the common belief that Android phones were concerned with market share more than the quality of their products. They put forward the concept that based on product quality, there was no “second best” to Apple.
This is where OnePlus’s motto “Never Settle” originates from as it provides better options for the android users instead for settling for something lesser.
Who invented OnePlus?
OnePlus Technology (Shenzen) Co., ltd simply referred to as OnePlus, is a Chinese smartphone and electronics manufacturer based in Shenzen, Guangdong, founded by Pete Lau (CEO) and Carl Pei (Director) in December 2013.
What is OnePlus’ Startup Story?
For a long time there has been this general belief that there is no Android phone that can compete with the Apple Models based on quality, this is what OnePlus aimed to change ever since its formation. OnePlus Technology (Shenzen) Co., ltd simply referred to as OnePlus, is a Chinese smartphone and electronics manufacturer based in Shenzen, Guangdong, founded by Pete Lau (CEO) and Carl Pei (Director) in December 2013.
What is Oneplus’ business strategy?
Over the years of its operation, OnePlus has used many innovative models and campaigns for the promotion of its products. The following are some of the popular promotional strategies and campaigns implemented by OnePlus,
Invite Only System
Smash The Past – OnePlus started the Smash the Past campaign on 23 April 2014. As the name suggests, it invited a selected group of customers to smash their old phone in an effort to purchase the OnePlus One for just $1.
Ladies First Campaign – On August 13 2014, OnePlus started the controversial Ladies first Campaign, it involved handing the elusive invites to the female forum members first.
Brand Ambassadors – OnePlus hired Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan as a Brand Ambassador for their promotion in India.
Trivago is a hotel search platform, whose main focus is to reopen the way travelers compare and search for hotels online. During this process, Trivago Hotels enables advertisers to expand their business, giving them access to a large consumer base who visit their platforms via a website or app.
Trivago was conceptualized in the city of Düsseldorf, Germany in the year 2005. The hotel aggregator was started by three university friends, Rolf Schrogmens, Peter Vinnmeier, and Stephan Stubner. Similar to the majority of start-ups, the initial foundation of the business was laid from a garage.
Besides, one of the 2006 founders, Stephen, decided to pursue a career in education, so Malte Sievert became part of the founding team. Trivago’s top management includes CEO Rolf Schrogmens, CFO Axel Heffer and COO Johannes Thomas.
Trivago started its operations in Germany and soon after the company started, it gained momentum and grew in various markets. At its launch, Trivago partnered with OTA (online travel agency) to meet its demands, following its objective of successfully showing information to consumers.
The hotel aggregator collected data from large hotels to littler organizations and showed it properly to hotel seekers. The company focuses on accumulating information from reliable sources so that customers can always be provided with reliable and most satisfactory services.
Also, features such as filters and sorting functions allow every traveler to find the most ideal hotel room at the location of their choice. Trivago is equipped with a highly robust and robust server infrastructure, giving the company the necessary data center that will meet Trivago’s high-security standards, reliability as well as flexibility. All these features give its visitors and search engines the ability to search for direct and fast results for hotel rooms.
Growth Of Trivago
Over the years, Trivago has developed extensively. Starting its operations from a garage, the hotel aggregator now employs about 5000 employees in its various offices worldwide.
Trivago came with its first advertising campaign in the year 2008–09 when most travel organizations were not doing brand promotion. Trivago ran an effective TV advertising campaign in his native Germany.
The proceeds from the brand promotion campaign were used by Trivago to expand its operations in Europe which is one of its most popular and successful markets to date.
The hotel aggregator started its operations from Germany and to date, it has achieved tremendous growth with presence in over 190 countries of the world. It attracts over 120 million visitors to its platform every month and is now rated as the largest hotel search website in the world. Currently, Trivago analyzes 900,000 hotels in 33 different languages from over 250 placements across the month.
Over the years, Trivego’s customers have given more than 150 million hotel reviews with over 17 million photos. At the end of last year, the hotel aggregator provided more than 14.6 million bookings for the budget as well as luxury hotels. Besides, Trivago is one of the most successful and fastest-growing start-ups, not just in Germany but worldwide, whose profits have been growing manifold since 2008.
Services Provided By Trivago
Using Trivago’s Hotel Manager, hoteliers can list their hotel through a profile on the Trivago website. Registration is free through the simple online form. Trivago Hotel Manager Basic is completely free to use, allowing you to list your hotel and benefit from the increased risk.
For an even more advanced triangle profile, you can join the Hotel Manager PRO. This takes you one step above the original version by highlighting your contact details to enable hotel news prominently on your profile and encouraging viewers to contact you directly through your website or phone number.
It also provides you with advanced analytical tools such as viewing visitors’ profiles and competitor data so that you can target your audience more effectively.
Once you are registered with the Trivago Hotel Manager, you can assign your hotel to your hotel profile. You can add it if the hotel is not already on Tivago’s list, although it takes up to seven days to get approval. You can manage multiple hotels in your account with an easy-to-use dashboard.
Once you have added your hotel, add detailed information, including contact details and eye-catching images, so that your hotel is attractive to visitors and arrives in relevant search results.
Trivago provides professionally written hotel descriptions for every hotel. These feature high-quality keywords to attract web traffic. Hotel reviews from other booking sites are automatically collided by Trivago search robots, contributing to the overall rating score for each hotel. Trivago also offers a rate connect service. This allows you to set up competitive cost-per-click advertising campaigns, track your performance, track through analytics, and control your marketing budget for the best success at the lowest cost. The service pays a set fee through an initial consultation.
Trivago Business Model
Trivago Business Model
Customer Segments
Trivago has a multidisciplinary business model. It mainly consists of two separate customer segments that are required for operations. It is to register brands that make their services available online to consumers who compare services as well as their prices to facilitate the purchase decision.
Value Proposition
There are mainly four primary value propositions that Trivago offers, namely access, customization, convenience, and brand/positioning.
The online hotel aggregator initially reduces accessibility by only enabling its customers to contribute to the content of their website. Also, they are motivated to add lodging brands and text descriptions. Complete the missing profile, as well as edit the profile to ensure the quality of the content.
The website promotes customization only by allowing brands on its platform to personalize their user profiles. The facility is offered by allowing visitors to find hotel rooms and compare prices according to brands.
Trivago offers a free app for its hotel search product on both mirrors and Android. In addition to the hotel search feature, the app provides proximity and interactive maps to the user’s current location.
The Trivago app is listed in Mashable’s 25 apps to save you money, USA today’s 10 best apps for booking your stay, the independent app in Ireland to save you time and money, and Australia’s News.com.au as one of the top apps to take on vacation.
Trivago Referral Revenue
Methods of earning income, a commission from hotels listed on Trivago sites, called revenue, when the user clicks, include Trivago subscription fees paid by hotels for services provided by Trivago’s business model. Trivago outbound Fee is a global hotel search platform.
According to Trivago, its mission should be “the traveler’s first and independent source of information to find the ideal hotel at the lowest rate.” Users can access Trivago in 55 local websites and applications and 33 countries.
Trivago combines hotel content from various sources on its platform. These hotels are then displayed to users based on their search criteria. Trivago also claims to help users achieve the best rates by providing comparisons to over a million hotels on over 250 booking sites.
However, users cannot book on Trivago, they can only select the hotel. For booking, they are redirecting to traditional OTAs (online travel agencies) such as Trains (PCLN), CTRP.com, and Expedia, from search results in a particular hotel.
Trivago Revenue Generation
Trivago Geography Split
Trivago has classified its revenue into three geographical regions, America, Europe and the rest of the world. For the nine months ended September 30, 2016, the US constituted 38.2% of Trivago’s revenue, Europe constituted 47.2%, and the rest of the world constituted 13.6%.
It compares hotel prices to 700,000+ hotels. Nearly 5 million monthly visitors reach the site, which reaches the hotel platform. Strong support by Expedia, a leading name in the travel industry, has 50 international forums.
Weakness Of Trivago
Limited product offering. It only covers hotels and thus, does not cater to all aspects of travel. General competition means limited market share and low brand loyalty.
Opportunities For Trivago
Acquisition of online travel booking portal to expand its portfolio. Increased interest in travel tie-ups with more hotels may increase their presence.
Threats For Trivago
Expanding its portfolio to add flight, car, and bus booking facilities, Flight-Plus Hotel’s combo packages presented by various portals are a major threat. The popularity of online travel portals erases a significant market share in India.
Listing to your hotel on Trivago’s website allows you to see more than 120 million monthly visitors. It also shows overall reviews for your hotel from several booking sites. Depending on your hotel specialty on Trivago, you will reach a global audience of relevant travelers looking for a place to stay during your next travel adventure.
Initially, Trivago received one million euros from angel investors – Christian Vollmann and Florian Hahnemann.
In the year of 2008, Trivago decided to take the help of TV commercials to develop its business. This move was because the top management believed that solely based on Google and other search engines to promote the business could prove unsafe in the long run.
Over the last 11 years, Trivago has been tasting success and expanding. The organization, which had funding of just $ 1.4 million in 2008, was able to achieve revenue of 1.035 billion by the end of 2017.
The hotel aggregator entered the US market in 2012 and entered into a joint venture with Expedia, an American travel organization. Expedia acquired a 61.6% stake in Trivago for the $632 million in the year of 2013 and thus claimed the majority of the organization’s stock.
In the same year, Trivago entered the Asian market and India became the first country to operate in Asia.
In December 2016, Trivago achieved another feat as it was successfully listed on the symbol of the NASDAQ TRVG ticker. By that time, Trivago had hired over 1000 employees in its various offices worldwide. Traffic on the Trivago continues to increase with each passing year. And, compared to the previous year, Trivago’s traffic expanded by 25% in the year 2018.
Trivago has been acquiring large and small businesses for the past few years and its most recent acquisition was TripHappy for an undisclosed sum in May 2018.
Frequently Asked Questions About Trivago
Does trivago mean anything?
Trivago stands for Trip Vacation and Go.
How does Trivago get its data?
Before running a campaign, advertisers need to provide an import feed containing all hotels they want to be advertised on trivago. trivago will import the advertiser’s hotel inventory into the trivago database and based on the provided data, the hotels will be mapped to the corresponding trivago properties.
Who is trivago owned by?
Trivago is owned by Expedia Group.
How much does it cost to advertise on trivago?
Registering on Trivago for advertising is for free and claiming business area is also free. Using Trivago business studio you can monitor your business profile as well as optimize your hotel profile for free.
Does Trivago have flights?
Trivago does offer search services to travelers for One-Way flights, Round-trip, and Multi-City flights.
Amazon is the world’s leading e commerce business with an annual turnover of over $100 billion and its growth is still exponential. At the same time, Amazon is one of the world’s leading membership businesses with Amazon Prime. The service is believed to have more than 80 million members worldwide.
Amazon Prime is considered an important part of Amazon’s great success. Amazon Prime members pay an annual amount of $99 or a monthly amount of $10.99 and receive free two-day delivery on over 15 million different items. In addition, Amazon provides various content including data storage, movies and music to its core members.
Amazon Prime Logo
Amazon Prime Objective
The primary objective of Amazon Prime is to create loyalty between Amazon and its customers. When the customer has paid $99 or $10.99 for free delivery, he will wish to get the most from the already paid membership fee. In other words, Prime Members get what we call ‘Golden Handcuffs’ within the subscription industry; Benefits for customers. As a result, Prime Members spend three times as much money as non-members on Amazon.com in addition to the membership fee.
Prime is not only critical of Amazon’s current business, with one-third of Amazon’s business derived from Prime membership. Prime is also an important part of Amazon’s strategy for the future that revolves around the complete disintegration of the interaction between e-commerce and retail and the dominance of the same-day distribution market.Amazon has entered the market for groceries in the US, winning a position as a same-day delivery dominator in the market. Amazon Fresh delivers groceries and other goods directly to the customer’s doorstep, the day the goods are ordered. Prime also plays an important role here.
A Prime Fresh subscription at an annual amount of $299 gives customers free delivery of groceries as they often like Other retail and grocery businesses have much to learn from the success of Amazon’s membership. Businesses have the opportunity to tie customers closer to the business through a membership that builds loyalty and makes the customer spend more on your business and less with competitors. It is very likely that we will see substantial use of the membership model within both the retail market and the grocery market – as we have seen it in other industries over the years
Other Prime Service
Amazon Prime Service
Amazon Prime Music
Prime Music is Amazon’s music streaming service. Here users get access to over one million songs, which can be freely downloaded in the “Prime-Library”. Prime users have the opportunity to purchase CDs at a lower price than usual, even though these purchases are rare at these times. Compared to Spotify and other music services, Prime Music’s selection is not volatile, as contestants have more than 20 million songs available, but simply that the selection doesn’t exist is incredibly important and gives loyal customers their money. Gives good value.
Amazon Mom
Prime has further membership. As a Prime Subscriber, it is possible to subscribe as a parent or a family member and thus save 15-20 percent on diapers and similar products. However, the name has been in the news a bit and has since been changed to the more appropriate “Amazon Family”
Amazon Cloud Drive
Amazon cloud drive is Amazon’s “cloud storage”; Amazon’s response to Dropbox. Here, users can store files from their computer, so that it is backed up and so that computer memory is not filled.
Amazon Studio
Amazon Studio is an additional step in Amazon’s long-term plan to reach as many users as possible. Amazon Studios Amazon has its own film production service and intends to produce both TV series and films.
Amazon Prime Instant Video
The video service competes with some relatively big players, including Netflix, Hulu and HBO. However, there are many indications that Prime Instant Video is a major success, especially in terms of getting users to subscribe to Prime or getting users to keep up with Prime
Amazon Prime Two Day Delivery
It was from here that it started. For six years, Prime was only a two-day delivery service and was a real success for subscribers. It was possible to get free delivery with your purchase if you ordered more than $25 and were not a Prime Customer – but as a Prime Customer you could order anything without paying for transportation. Of course, you have indirectly paid for the load – as an annual payment – but in the end most customers have made the most of the savings on free transport or paid in the subscription amount.
Amazon Prime Kindle Service
39 percent of Amazon consumers in the US reportedly own a Kindle reader. Kindle users, who are not necessarily prime subscribers, are often referred to as good subscribers as prime subscribers, as they make more purchases than the “standard” customer. Kindle is the name of Amazon’s e-book reader, which gives users the possibility to buy, download and read e-books anytime on their tablet. Kindle also works with Prime Library, which gives Prime customers the possibility to borrow e-books for free from a website or app
In 26 years, Amazon has managed to grow to be the world’s most successful e commerce company with an annual turnover of over $130 billion and a market value of around $470 billion. Nevertheless, the company still finds itself in the “Day One” in the development of e-commerce, as the vast majority of business between companies and individuals is still physical and psychologically driven by customers into a store or supermarket . This is what Amazon wants to change.
According to Jeff Bezos and Amazon this change will only happen if e-commerce is cheaper, faster and easier for the customer in the future, as the customer has to go to the local store or supermarket. Therefore, the customer, when he is shopping online, must have access to the best and largest selection of items. More importantly, the goods have to be delivered quickly and most often on the same day.
One of the most surprising levers in the making of this change is Amazon turning its customers into customers. The membership model is otherwise not an everyday look in the retail or grocery industry. In fact, it is virtually non-existent, but Amazon has reinforced and revolutionized the concept of membership, and created a very strong formula for customer loyalty with Amazon Prime. In fact, to the extent that it is believed that Amazon has more than 60 million customers worldwide – and is still growing
YouTube is basically a website on which people can watch and upload videos. But that is an understanding. You Tuber offers only this much to its users. YouTube has many features in streaming its videos. The website has a search bar through which you can access relevant videos among the billions available. This makes it so easy for users to find exactly what they are looking for. You can optimize your search using keywords. Users can enter captions for their videos which allow them to become more relevant to searches. Apart from this, users can also live stream. YouTube also has a community feature that allows a channel to host a community tab. On it, it can post videos, pictures and GIF for viewers.
YouTube logo
YouTube Red
It is a premium feature that YouTube have. It is like a subscription service that gives the user access to many otherwise accessible features. These include streaming video without advertising, content that is not normally accessible, and playback feature on offline and background mobile devices. You also have access to all services of Google play music
YouTube TV
In 2017, on 28 February, YouTube announced the launch of another service called YouTube TV. It is a live TV service with over 40 channels. However, this service is only available in selected US cities. It comes with a fee of $ 35 per month. It provides unlimited cloud DVR storage. It can record your favorite shows simultaneously. It is available on your phone, TV and computer.
How Does YouTube Earn Revenue ?
YouTube, as we saw in the first paragraph, is a video sharing website. Its products are its users. This is right. What YouTube is essentially selling is its users for various advertisers. They also have other sources of revenue.
YouTube revenue model
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Most videos on YouTube are completely free for users to watch, and it is for this reason that they get such a large number of visitors every day: over thirty million. The simple fact is that they get many people visiting their website on a daily basis, a large crowd of advertisers attracts them.
One method is through sponsored videos. The advertiser pays YouTube according to the views received after the advertisement is selected. The sponsored video is first displayed at the top of all videos and its address is based on the specific keywords that will be searched.
The second method through which it makes money through advertising is by embedded video. The advertisement that is run at the beginning of the video is embedded video. Here too, you get your salary based on watching YouTube.
The third method is advertisements displayed on the homepage of the website. On opening the homepage of the website, there are some blocks of advertisements which are shown along the sides.
These are also advertising schemes that YouTube offers to its customers. Here, advertising earns revenue through a mix of clicks and views
YouTube Premium Service
YouTube also earns through its premium services, such as YouTube Red and YouTube TV. The reason for this is the constant battle between ad pushers and ad blockers, and hence they have to depend on such services by charging a monthly fee. YouTube has also started a program that will pay channels on YouTube and charge subscribers monthly to gain access
YouTube Customer Segment:
People who use YouTube and derive value from it.
People who use the Internet extensively.
People who like to watch videos and actively subscribe to them.
Advertisers who want to connect with people using the Internet.
Developers who want to get their products and design there for people to see.
Considering all the sources of revenue and costs that the company incites to hosting videos, YouTube is still struggling to make significant profits. Users are making money from third parties by promoting products. YouTube needs to start dubbing in this area to meet the shortcomings in its profits. The CEO of YouTube still says that YouTube is at an investment level in its growth. YouTube is trying to figure out a complete model that will allow them to reap the beneficial benefits. But YouTube is the second most visited site in the world. This gives them an edge to begin with. They can capitalize on this fact on a large scale and become one of the most profitable businesses. Like the basic axis from a dating website to the common one, YouTube needs a more simple axis to make money making machines. That is YouTube for you.
Google began as an online search firm, but it now offers more than 50 internet services and products from e-mail and online documentation for mobile phones and tablet computers. In addition, the 2012 acquisition of Motorola Dynamics has put it in a position to sell hardware such as mobile phones. Google’s comprehensive product portfolio and size make it one of the top four impressive companies in the high-tech market with Apple, IBM, and Microsoft. Despite these innumerable products, its original search tool remains the origin of its success. In 2016, Alphabet earned all its revenues from Google advertising on the basis of users’ search requests.
The Google Inc business model can be seen more clearly when it is divided into a few key areas:
Key Partners: Google’s key partners include Suppliers, Distributors, Open Handset Alliance, and Original Equipment Manufacturers.
Key Activities: Key activities include research and development for both the development of new technologies and features and the improvement of existing ones. Significant time is spent in the maintenance and management of large-scale IT infrastructure and products and services. Apart from this, work is done on marketing, strategy and alliances.
Key Resources: Google’s core resources will include data centers, servers and other IT infrastructure, IP as well as human resources. Other resources include patents, licenses and proprietary materials.
Value Proposition: The company aims to create value for its customers for internet search, advertising, operating systems and platforms, and the enterprise. The overreaching principle is derived from the mission statement to manage the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Channels: Channels to reach customers include google.com, Google affiliate website, and Google Ads Words. Sales and support teams are involved to reach advertisers and network members.
Customer Relationships: The channel can include sales and support services as well as a dedicated team for large customers to build customer relationships.
Customer Segment: Google has three main customers. Users who are able to organize information in a useful way using Google products and services, advertisers who have an effective way of displaying online and offline advertisements for customers and members of the Google Network and other content providers, Those who use the Ads Sense service. Other expanded segments may include mobile device users and manufacturers and developers.
Google’s Business Model Change Over The Next Ten Years?
Here are the Major Trends:
Search traffic is moving to mobile and voice. This reduces advertising revenue
Advertising is moving from traditional to digital. This increases advertising revenue.
Servers and services are moving to the cloud. This increases cloud revenue.
Supporting-based tools are ecosystem coalescing. The effect is… complicated.
AR / VR. Google’s bet is on phone-based VR.
The magnitude of trend 2 surpasses the magnitude of trend 1, so Google’s advertising revenue will continue to grow indefinitely.
Trend 3 is all the opposite. The main question is whether they can hold on to Amazon and Microsoft, and if not, can they build a fairly profitable business from third place. Strategically, they are unlikely to make major changes to their cloud strategy until they exit the market entirely, which seems impossible.
Trend 4: The instrument, is an interesting one. This is an important new market for Google which, in the best case, outperforms other tech companies in profits. This is their best chance to build a huge new profit center. The Google device is well-positioned to win the competition. They have better AI than Amazon and Apple, they have a phone that Amazon doesn’t, and they have a successful speaker device, which Apple doesn’t. However, things can change rapidly, such as Amazon launching a successful phone.
It is also unclear how big the market will be. Google’s system, which makes phone calls on your behalf, hints at the size Google sees in this market: Vishal. If Google is able to use AI to transact with humans, then a whole host of tasks will be automated and the value will be very high. This would be so disruptive that they would have to carefully consider the social consequences. But it represents another revenue source with advertisements. On the other hand, if accessories remain merely a technological toys, then Google won’t really lose anything. Like trend 3, it is all upside down.
Trend 5 has no upside or downside for Google. If it turns out Google is right, then AR / VR will not be a significant revenue source for anyone. If they are wrong, some other company will get rich. This is a big trend in the industry but one Google is staying away from most.
So overall, Google’s big business model shift will be a new AI-based device and services ecosystem. This is his big bet for the coming decade
Google’s Other Products
Google Other Product
Some of Google’s other basic products include:
Google News: The service started in 2002 as an automated service, which summarizes news items from multiple websites.
Google Fiber: The Google Fiber Project began in 2010. The plan was to build an ultra-high-speed broadband network in some US cities. Kansas City was chosen as a pilot project, and the project was completed in 2012.
Google Phone and Android OS: Google launched Android, a mobile phone operating system in 2007. Google acquired the OS as open-source software and allows developers to use software development kits to develop applications. Google also released a phone called Nexus One.
Google Chrome: Google Chrome was announced in 2008 as an open-source web browser. Google Chrome OS was launched in 2009 as a Linux-based operating system. The OS only supported a web browser, which is used to log people into their online Google accounts.
Google Goggles: This is a mobile application for Android and Apple iOS. It is used for image recognition and image-based searches. The application can identify historical sites, scan business cards and even solve riddles.
Google launched the ‘Shopping’ tab to enable users to flip through the products and direct them to the merchant websites or e-commerce platforms when searching for products to buy in June 2020. Similar to the News and Image tab on Google, the shopping tab allows users to seamlessly control their search by putting necessary filters and browsing the desired product through listing on different websites. Google has collaborated with e-commerce players such as Flipkart,Paytm Mall,Myntra, Koovs, etc., to join the company’s shopping tab initiative.
“We are always exploring options to help consumers find the products they want to buy more quickly and efficiently from local merchants,”
The Google spokesperson confirmed the latest initiative in an email response claiming that the feature will facilitate customer online shopping more efficiently from the local merchants as well along with e-commerce players. Reportedly, Google has collaborated with the leading e-commerce platforms including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra and Paytm Mall on board in their latest project.
Besides, the search giant also intends to tap the SME space from local Kirana stores (like JioMart) to expensive art collection stores whose merchants are not necessarily listed on the e-commerce players’ websites. The ongoing talks between Google and retailers both big and small will help the search giant understand the country’s shopping trends. These local merchants need not necessarily list on platforms like Amazon or Flipkart.
Another Google spokesperson said, “ They (Google) will partner with retailers of all sizes. It can tell the user where the product is available, is it available online, etc. For now, this service is being provided free of cost.”
Through Shopping Tab, Google lists products through its ‘product listing ads’, the Shopping tab will give users a lot more control. For instance, users can filter the product they are looking for based on price or any other attributes such as price, seller, delivery, department, colour, shape, and so on…, while also getting more details of the product by going to the ‘details’ page.
Google Shopping Tab allows users to filter Products
The most popular search engine operating company, Google was functioning the Shopping tab in 30+ countries when last reported in June 2020. On the merchant side, anyone with a product feed can plug into Google’s merchant centre to be listed on the shopping tab. On the user side, the tab has also seen high rates of engagement, largely due to the specificity that product search allows filter by attributes. With 80-85 million online shoppers, India is an important market for Google.
Google Funding And IPO
The company got its first financing from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bectolsham. The company had financed 100,000 US dollars before the incorporation. Page and Brin tried to sell their website for 1 million US dollars in 1999 because they thought it was distracted by the work of their PhD. They went away and went to secure $25 million in funding from major investors. Among them, Cleaner Perkins Kaffield and Biers along with Venture Capital companies like Secucau Capital were included. The company’s IPO was five years later. 19, 605,052 shares were presented at $85 per share on the August 19, 2004 IPO of Google. Morgan Stanley and Credits were underwriters for Suisse Deals and an online auction system was also prepared for the sale of shares. The valuation of Google at IPO was $23.1 bn. Sales were worth $1.67 billion and by 2014, the company’s market capitalization was then worth $23 billion, which increased to $397 billion.
The company has secured around $36.1 mn in funding:
Date
Name of the Funding Round
Funding Raised
June 1, 2000
Funding Round
$10 mn
June 7, 1999
Series A
$25 mn
November 1, 1998
Angel Round
$1 mn
August 1, 1998
Angel Round
$100 K
The company retained control of most shares. There were mistakes that the IPO will impact the company’s culture through the impact of the company, such as a sudden millionaire situation of shareholder pressure and many officers on paper. The founders addressed these concerns and assured potential investors that the company’s culture will remain intact. To ensure that it is continuing, the company has a designated main culture officer. This role is served by the director of human resources and its purpose is to ensure that culture and methods are developed and maintained and be kept right for the original values that form the company’s base. Over the last few years, there were concerns and suggestions that the company has lost a bad way of anti-corporate thinking and has also given some allegations about sexuality and age. However, none of them turned out to be true.
Google Interesting Facts
The name of Google is taken from Googol, which is equal to the number 1 after 100 zero (1 x 10 ^ 100).
The original name for the backrub search engine was until Sergey Brin and Larry Page Google’s URL Google, Inc.
Google registered its domain on September 15, 1997.
Google’s URLs are often misspelled. For example, the user queries of Google, often become www.gooogle.com, www.gogle.com, and www.googler..com, however, all of them are owned by Google, Inc.
According to the 2013 PU Research Center survey, most Internet users (about 56%) have to use Google to find information about themselves
The Google search technology is called PageRank.
Withholding a dominant 91.94% market share, when last reported in 2021, Google is the biggest search engine.
Google has an enviable 24.4 million followers on Twitter.
Google turned out to be unreachable for 5 minutes on August 16th, 2013. It was found that on that specific time interval, global internet usage saw a fall of 40%.
We all know Google has a Twitter account. But do you know Google’s first tweet? You would be surprised that the first tweet that came from the colossal search engine operator was: “I’m feeling lucky” in binary code.
Google has made its homepage available in 80+ languages.
Google’s revenues mostly come from the advertisements it features. It drew 89% of its revenue from advertisements in 2014.
King of Online Search: Google is the undisputed king of the online search engine division. It processes about 2% of world questions.
Huge Market Share: Currently, Google has a 28% share in the worldwide desktop searches market.
Invincible: So far, no competitor has come close to challenging its position, let alone its market share in the search engines.
Largest Traffic Generator: Every month, this powerful brand generates over 1.2 billion hits. It is the largest traffic generator and has a clear advantage over its competitors such as Bing, Yahoo, Baidu.
High Revenue: The huge revenue of $65 billion (2017) that Google has gained through various partnerships with various sites has ensured its growth.
Adaptability: Google has successfully adapted mobile and Android technologies, giving Apple the ability to compete directly with the iPhone
Google’s Weakness
Reputation is being affected as users and governments feel that they do not up to their social corporate responsibility.
For example not paying enough tax on profits. The social network site Google Plus has failed and will be shut down. The main income is from advertising revenue. This can be a problem if advertisers decide to cut their costs.
Dependence on the Internet
Minimal physical presence
Google’s Opportunity
Wearable market: In November 2019, Google acquired Fitbit for $2.1 billion to compete with Apple and Samsung in the attractive and growing wearable (smartwatch and fitness band) market.
Android OS: The most important opportunity for Google is its noticeable efforts in Android operating system provisioning. This has strengthened their chances of competing directly with Apple iOS.
Google Glasses and Google Play: Google is set to market its newly launched Google Glasses and Google Play. This can boost the progress and development of Google.
Cloud computing: With its storage and cloud solutions, cloud computing can play a significant role in Google’s marketing enterprise. In January 2018, Google introduced a new digital store, which provides cloud-based software to all organizations. Correspondingly, the company also launched Mobile Iron, Inc., To integrate its Orbitra Commerce platform with Mobile Iron’s app distribution, security, and analytics capabilities.
Non-advertising business model: Google needs to start a diversification process and aim to create a non-advertising business model accordingly. There is a need to further enhance adaptability by committing to more commercial transactions. This will ensure permanent revenue
Google’s Threat
Market Shares Decline: According to data gathered from Emarketer, Google’s US digital advertising revenue is expected to see a decline in market shares. It was 38.8% (2017), 37.2% (2018). The reason for this is the increasing competition from Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, and Snapchat for advertising market share.
Gender Bias: A Google memo published by its employer James Damore has sparked a strong debate on the issue of gender bias and free speech in the company, highlighting its diversity policy.
Change Of Information: China has drawn a lot of criticism over its alleged cooperation with China on the search engine project (Dragonfly) by the censors. Antitrust controversy: Google has been involved in antitrust disputes for years with US and EU lawmakers. Anti-EU antitrust regulators fined EUR 5 billion which Google has sought to challenge.
Censorship Policy: Google has not managed to protect itself from backlash over its censorship policy. Many whistle-blowers have started leaking about its political, and ideological leanings.
Competitors: Google is the primary threat from its rivals Facebook and Amazon. Both competitors are slowly joining up with Google. Their new features and increasing popularity can take the headlines away from Google.
Google’s SWOT analysis shows the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the largest online search engines. The popularity of Google allows it to enjoy huge profits.
The search engine keeps growing every year and keeps improving its technology. If Google addresses its weaknesses and threats, no other competitor can outperform or match this company.
FAQs
Who created Google?
Google was created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Who is Google CEO?
The CEO of Google is Sundar Pichai.
What is Larry Page’s net worth?
Larry Page’s current net worth as estimated by Forbes in April 2022 is $111 bn.
What is Sergey Brin’s net worth?
The net worth of Sergey Brin is $107 bn.
What is Google known for?
Google is a multinational conglomerate that is known for the creation of the world’s most popular search engine platform.
What year was Google founded?
Google was founded in 1998, on the 4th of September.
Coronavirus has had a very bad impact on the economy. With the crash in the economy, a lot of people lost their jobs. Some people even believe that unemployement will have even worse impact of people’s mentality than the impact of coronavirus.
Many companies laid off thousands of their employees in one go.
We analyzed a list of 200 companies which laid off their employees. Over 27% of the companies were Travel companies.
Here is an infographic case study on the Layoffs Due To Coronavirus.
A little request from StartupTalky: If you see any hiring post on LinkedIn, engage with the post. Like it, comment, mention some people who would be perfect for that job or just share the post with your followers. This way, you boost the reach of that post and help someone who is looking for a job.
Don’t forget to share this infographic on your social media.
India is a market where our homegrown companies are competing fiercely with multinational giants. For Ola there is Uber, for Flipkart there is Amazon and Swiggy is competing with ubereats. One thing which greatly differentiate Indian companies from MNCs is the service quality. We all agree to the fact that Amazon and Uber provide better customer service than their competitors. This was also found in a recent survey by redsheer, where NPS score of MNCs were higher. ✔️
FoodPanda and Ola 🐼🤝🚗
I was talking to my friend who is currently working with Ola and he said that sometimes he has to work for Foodpanda when workload is higher (If you don’t know ola acquired Foodpanda this year). I instantly asked him if he can provide me Foodpanda coupons. He laughed it off and said, “why do I need a coupon when Foodpanda is already giving away food for free”.
After the call, I checked the app and I found this 😍
Offers on Foodpanda app
I was really happy after seeing this, I will save money and time, as I won’t have to look in the big 4 (Zomato, Foodpanda, Ubereats and Swiggy) for coupons and offers. FoodPanda was my goto place.
Here is what I found one day! 🥧 Pastries in 5 rupees!
So we ordered like 25 pastries and we had party in the office that day. We could only order one item in one order but there wasn’t any restriction on the number of orders. 25 different delivery boys delivered those 25 packet worth 5 rupees (after discount).
Inefficiency kills me! Even though we enjoyed pastries, It was really surprising that, foodpanda or any other food delivery app don’t have any option to club the orders if two orders are from point A to point B. What’s more funny is that the a delivery guy who is 5 km away is assigned to pick an order from a restaurant who is just 800 mts away!
This clearly shows that foodpanda wants to increase it number of order no matter what, probably to show investors, raise more funding and burn more! This events reminds of one business leasson from ashish hemrajani, founder BookmyShow!
Ashish Hemrajani, founder bookmyshow on doing business
In StartupTalky, I learned a trick to check click data of any bit.ly or goo.gl url shortener. Just add “+” sign after the url. Foodpanda send a goo.gl URL whenever you place an order (to track status of delivery guy).
[I don’t understand any company will leave one real data point open?] I checked the data if the offers had done a great work, and yes they did. I am sure the team was able to increase the number of orders at least 3 fold! Congrats! You are now ready to raise more funds! 💸💰
Data of url sent to customers after delivery
Update: Well they recently removed the offers and we can see the clicks have gone below the average. 📉
Data of url sent to customers after delivery
Well, this the joy of ordering food for so cheap was very short lived. with scale came problems!
FoodPanda Problems
Foodpanda problems
Restaurant is closed still showing
Order not delivered
App not working
Late or No delivery
Coupon not working
Order cancellation and refund
Bad customer support
Difference in taxes with orders with and without coupon
Chef at work showing for the last 4 hours
Order is showing delivered in the app but not in reality
Was I the only one? NO!
Just to know that if Foodpanda is just messing with or with everyone, I checked their Facebook page to see and in a post with more than 170 comments not a single comment was positive. Just like me, other customers were also having all sorts of issue with the order. It was very hard for Foodpanda support team to handle all these queries.
Customers comment from their facebook page
I am sure their twitter handle is also filled only with such queries. One of the comments which made me laugh like anything was
We know running a startup is a tough job. Keep Indian customer happy feels like heaven but Mr. Panda how to plan to compete with global players when the situation is so pathetic? 🤔
What people think about Big 4, Food Delivery startups
I conducted a poll in StartupTalky to understand what people think of all food delivery startups.While swiggy stands at 157, food panda just got 8 votes!
Poll conducted in the group
What was the matter?
To know the reason, I again talked to my friend and here is what I got to know.
After the acquisition, Ola had announced that it would invest $200 million – over Rs 1,400 crores – in Foodpanda to elevate its market presence. Discount was one easy way to get new users and engage existing users. So a campaign “The Crave Party” was launched to relaunched Foodpanda. It was launched across all major cities and all discounts were given by Foodpanda only (restaurant was not bearing any cost for discounts, they just have to pay 23% commission on the original cost which Foodpanda anyways takes as an aggregator).
Woah! No words
Now to fulfill the orders, Foodpanda started to recruit 60,000 delivery men by offering a substantially higher salary than anyone in the hyperlocal delivery business but solwly they started reducing the salary from INR 1320/day to INR 40/delivery which comes around INR 400-450/day. Here is what happned next (in diagram).
Bad Experience, Bad Experience, Bad Experience!
How one thing at the top of the funnel affects the whole food delivery business
So you can see these are all operations are connected as a funnel. Also, we can see that foodtech startup is more about the operation than tech.
Learnings 📖
Scale your business but not at the cost of customer satisfaction/happiness.
Things may go out of your control while you scale, always be prepared for that.
Treat your team well, be true with them. They are one who will stand with you when no one will.
Indians are understood to love offers and discount, but everyone on the planet expects a minimum level of service quality. Especially when you are in food delivery, No one likes free pizza when they are not hungry.
Marketing is important but it must be supported with the efficient operation and tech.
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PV Vyshnavi
