| "They are redirecting those customers to their platform where they can purchase from a competitor or they can charge us a fee to provide food to that same customer. Whereas the customer could have just gone to our website and ordered directly from our online ordering store and we would not be charged a commission to GrubHub or DoorDash." Here he refers to Grubhub and DoorDash as "competitors" with the restaurant. Yet at the conclusion of the story he refers to them as "partners" with the restaurants who pay them. "DoorDash and GrubHub have a long history of screwing their partners." These companies are "middlemen". That description in fact fits a large number of "tech" companies. It is a common theme when we look at the "tech" industry. A few days ago food delivery, including Grubhub, was discussed on HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23169597 One commenter argued that companies like Grubhub exist in "fake markets" that would not exist were it not for VC funding. Another argued that these markets are not fake because these companies have managed to be profitable and deliver returns to investors. Not sure what you all have experienced, in my experience with restaurants and delivery, the owners always seem to prefer customers who order directly from the restaurant, not via a middleman. However, I can sense that they feel compelled to sign up with the middlemen for fear of losing business. HN commenters seem to enjoy comparing first page search results on Google versus alternatives such as DDG. Try this one out. Search for your favourite restaurant. On Google, I see more middlemen than I see on DDG, including a result for "[restaurant-name].business.site" which I believe belongs to Google. I don't see that result on DDG. Imagine if the telephone book Yellow Pages listed multiple numbers for each business, some of them not belonging to the business but to middlemen who would "make calling easier". Even more, imagine it changed the order of the listings according to a "secret" methodology instead of presenting them in alphabetical order. |