[ram_rar]

Can someone help me understand how many companies are generally needed for healthy competition, as opposed to a market being considered fragmented or monopolistic? To the untrained eye, having 5 players might seem like a reasonable level of competition and suggest a functioning market. Personally, I’ve always seen food delivery as a premium service rather than an essential one — so it makes sense that there's a higher cost for the convenience of having a burrito delivered to your door in near real time.

[hn_throwaway_99]

Because the 5 players are for the entire planet, not any individual market. In any particular market, there are one or two big delivery companies. The 5 companies are Meituan, DoorDash, Uber, Prosus, and Delivery Hero. I'm in the US, where DoorDash and Uber Eats are the major players. I've never even heard of the other three, which dominate non-US markets.