Battle of LATAM Food Delivery Apps
The 3 Food Delivery Apps driving change in LATAM
Tap, order, eat, repeat. Today it’s as normal as sending an email. Before COVID-19, most of us were ordering food delivery for the ease and convenience of on-demand meals. Now that many in-restaurant dining is off the table or severely limited, food service apps are more popular than ever. According to the NPD Group’s research, food delivery services have grown 23% annually since 2013 and show no signs of slowing.
Since LATAM is the world’s second fastest-growing mobile market, it’s no surprise that food delivery giants have flocked to the area. Currently, there are at least a dozen food delivery services in the region and the global audience is taking notice.
In a pandemic-laden world where for some, our only source of fun is ordering takeout, food delivery services are sitting happy. So who is leading the charge in LATAM? Let’s look at some heavy hitters.
iFood
The Brazil-based food delivery startup has funding of $500 million and is known as the “unicorn” of the food delivery industry (sprinkles anyone?). In Brazil, iFood has an 86% market share and operaties in over 1,000 cities and 147,000 restaurants.
Between Brazil and Mexico, iFood saw 3.5 million downloads from May 2019 — May 2020, almost a 36% increase YoY. The app is a fusion of free shipping, affordable pricing, and never-ending famous restaurants to choose from. What more could people want? To improve user experience, the app partnered with Facebook to enable Facebook social sign-on. Not only did this reduce friction but by using Facebook’s analytics iFood was able to optimize their marketing strategies to better reach their target audiences.
From late October to early December, iFood ran its first ad campaign in Brazil and Mexico. Keeping things fun but simple, the ads asked consumers, “hunger hit? Order now.” With floating hotdogs in the background, it did the trick. Within a day, downloads increased by almost 40%. DAUs had sustained growth until April 2020, growing from 467K before the campaign to 482.9K after — overall, a 65% growth in DAUs since 2019.
While iFood does have operations in Colombia and Mexico, most (97%) of its users are located in Brazil. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that the app plans on fixing that by merging with Delivery Hero owned Domicilios.com in late 2020. Together, iFood believes the newly formed partnership will have a majority stake in Colombia’s food delivery marketplace.
Want to learn more about iFood’s app promotion campaigns? Download our whitepaper, 11 Winning LATAM User Acquisition Campaigns.
DiDi Food
Didi is an industry giant offering two widely popular mobile apps: DiDi-Rider and DiDi Foods. Originally entering the LATAM space in January 2018 by acquiring Brazilian rideshare company 99, DiDi has grown to offer everything from car rides to scooters to food.
Three months after acquiring 99, Didi quickly entered Mexico with its own rideshare subsidiary named Didi-Rider. Flash forward to November 2019, DiDi-rider has expanded its ride-hailing operations to 32 Mexican cities, covering over 50% of the nation’s population.
Enter: App #2, DiDi Food. In April 2019 (and again in October), DiDi Food launched in two Mexican cities, Guadalajara and Monterrey. According to news reports, both launches were met with enthusiastic restaurant sign-ups and user downloads.
And these news reports would be correct. In October 2019, DiDi Food saw a massive spike in daily downloads, jumping from around 3.8K to 10.2K. DAUs began a long upward trend, lasting through January 2019. While little news exists on why the company decided to prepare a second “launch”, the results show that it was a great move.
Overall, from May 2019 to May 2020, DiDi Food has seen a 585% increase in downloads YoY, reaching 2.5M total. In addition, DAUs increased 310% YoY and MAUs 603% YoY. Although available in Japan as well, Mexico makes up over 99% of the app’s user base.
As if this wasn’t enough globe-trotting, DiDi rolled out 99Food in Brazil in December 2019. While Didi’s new, native brands are working in Mexico and other LATAM countries, it seems the company has decided to piggy-back off its first Brazilian acquisition, 99. We will be keeping a close eye to see how this new app performs post-pandemic
Rappi
Last but not at all least is Rappi. The Colombian on-demand delivery service is one of the most funded startups in Latin America, backed by titans such as Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, and SoftBank. Operating in the most prominent countries in the region: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Peru, this app has quickly become a mobile phone staple.
Although Rappi started as a food delivery service, the app has quickly evolved to rent e-scooters, make peer-to-peer payments, and purchase movie tickets — Rappi even launched its own debit card which is managed entirely through the app. One app to rule them all?
In 2018, Rappi set out to differentiate itself from competitors by preloading the app with Digital Turbine. Over the life of the campaign, Rappi saw a 30% increase in ROI, a 25% increase in LTV, and a 1300% increase in app installs.
Fast forward to 2020. With the coronavirus pandemic on the rise, Rappi had to adjust its app promotion strategy. On March 9 2020, Rappi set 11 banner ads live across different platforms and ran them all for 7 weeks total. Each banner highlighted a unique service from Rappi, such as food delivery, scooter rental, money payments and withdrawal, and even one message to, “ask for whatever you want”.
Within a day of launching, Rappi saw a gradual increase in downloads and daily active users (DAUs). By April 13, 5 weeks into the campaign, daily downloads maxed out at 65.7K, the app’s highest peak in over four months. DAUs continued to rise steadily, peaking the week of April 20 at 1.89M. Although DAUs slowly dropped off at the end of the campaign, they still held way above the starting point.
What’s Next in LATAM for Food Delivery?
The food delivery space in Latin America is not a one-man show. With Uber Eats, iFood, PedidosYa, and Cornershop — in addition to Rappi — the market is saturated. With the pandemic keeping many at home, delivery services are crucial to giving consumers what they want and keeping us connected. How will the winners be chosen? Smart app promotion campaigns, like Rappi’s, might be the only way to survive.
