In recent weeks, food delivery apps have made noise – and we are not talking about the sound of the “motorcycles” that run the city to deliver orders to the clients’ homes. Virtually simultaneously, competitors of the app IFood announced strategies in which they give up revenue by resetting taxes charged to restaurants.
They intend, in doing so, to attract new establishments to their platforms and reduce consumer prices, with the argument of going “against the monopoly of delivery in Brazil. ”There is already association taking advantage of the cue to summon boycott against the leading company, while a Chinese newbie also prepares to enter the sector.
Meituan, a technology giant valued at over $ 600 billion on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with an investment plan of $ 5.6 billion for the next five years. The operation will have the brand Keeta, already used by the company in markets in Asia and the Middle East, but has no date to debut here.
Brazilian Chinese control, 99 also announced the resurrection of his food delivery arm. The 99 Food had been closed in 2023, repeating the failure of Uber Eats, discontinued a year earlier. It is now relaunched, within an investment plan of $ 1 billion that aims to turn 99 into a super app. And with exemption from committee payment and monthly fee for registered restaurants, for two years.
“We are returning market control to those who cook and who deliver,” said Bruno Rossini, senior director of 99, in the news statement. Days later, Rappi “covered” the offer, offering exemption from indefinite fees.
Colombian startup is charging only the payment fees for new entrants that use the platform by the model full servicein which Rappi operates the logistics of delivery. “Between May and June, we will migrate contracts from the restaurants that are already on the platform, in a phase. [as taxas] Todo world “, disse Felipe Criniti, CEO do RAPPI.
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Coincidence or just good timingIFOOD launched on May 7 as a multicategoria convenience platform. The company wants to position itself as a technology platform besides the delivery of meals, acting on the delivery Shopping in markets, pharmacies, pet shops and other retailers.
Today, IFOOD charges 12% to 23% commission on the total amount of orders, 3.2% payment fee on orders paid on the platform and a monthly fee ranging from R $ 130 to R $ 150, according to the contracted plan.
Entity proposes boycott against iFood
While competitors try to maintain some discretion, not to nominally iFood in its new strategies, the Federation of Hotels, Restaurants and Bars of the State of São Paulo (Fhoresp) was explicit by promoting a deliver app.
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“The platform, not today, harms the entrepreneurs of the segment, when practicing exorbitant rates and has no safe criterion for the accreditation of restaurants,” says the entity’s guidance, which says it represents 500,000 establishments.
Fhoresp claims that it has tried to negotiate the fees charged with iFood in recent years, unsuccessfully. “The excessive rates it practices even make restaurants work for it [a plataforma]”, Points in the text, the executive director of the federation, Edson Pinto.
Also according to the entity, the iFood admits the entry of establishments without business license or sanitary control on the platform.
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“To give you an idea, Fhoresp has asked IFOOD to have the establishment’s business license or that issued by health surveillance as a condition to act on the platform. However, it is denied. This is a risk to public health, because there is no guarantee where the consumer is buying food, the provenance of products, as well as storage and manipulation,” says the FHORESP statement.
Sought by Infomoneythe iFood manifested itself through an official note, in which it says that “the delivery market is already highly competitive and sprayed.” The company denies being the owner of more than 90% of the market deliveryas has been propagated by entities in the bars and restaurants sector.
“The delivery market is already highly competitive and pulverized. About 65% of delivery requests in Brazil still happen through WhatsApp, telephone and apps for restaurants,” says the IFOOD note. In the text, the company also claims to be a defender of the free market and free competition.
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IFOOD’s statement does not counteract Fhoresp’s accusation of lack of criterion in the inclusion of establishments on the platform. The company did not make available a spokesman for interview.
What is the market size of iFood?
The Brazilian Association of Bars and Restaurants itself (Abrasel) has already stated that the platform has 86% market share and used the data in cases against the iFood that arrived at the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade).
The actions were moved by competitors with the justification that the platform imposed exclusivity contracts with the restaurants. The municipality has signed an agreement with iFood in 2023, preventing the app from signing exclusive contracts with more than 30 stores and reducing the time of these hits to a maximum of two years.
Abrasel says no endorsement of Fhoresp. “We will never propose a boycott,” said Paulo Solmucci, executive president of Abrasel, Infomoney. “We want companies to compete with better services and conditions, not eliminate a company. It makes no sense.”
Solmucci says dialogue with iFood is “excellent,” but also states that Abrasel “will be a platform opponent with regard to eventual anti -specific practices.”
“If they try to make Meituan, Rappi or 99 to somehow make it difficult, we will obviously seek to work to avoid this and the preferential place is Cade,” says Solmucci.
