Just Eat debuted online in 2011, introducing its network service between restaurants and customers and launching the phenomenon of food delivery. The platform offered a wide range of restaurants, with different types of cuisine and price ranges, to meet the demand and tastes of customers. In the following years, the phenomenon of food delivery exploded, with the spread of apps in 2015, leading to the creation of dedicated food delivery services in various cities around the world. Foodora, Moovenda, Deliveroo, Glovo, and Uber Eats are the main sites that appeared in the food delivery market, not only in large cities like Milan and Rome but extending their services to cities from north to south and from the center to the outskirts.
Food delivery quickly became a major urban trend in Italy and abroad, with continuous growth in data collected since 2016. Every year, competition increases with the presence of new delivery services, and this only means one thing: consumer demand is growing substantially. But why do people so readily rely on home delivery instead of cooking or going to a restaurant? The answers are easily understandable: the desire to eat something different, spend less compared to a restaurant, have the convenience of a gourmet dinner at home, and not having time to cook. From the analyses conducted, these hypotheses represent the needs on which the service is based, and they are confirmed.
Foodora’s research revealed a true transformation of eating habits. Among all the responses, two main trends emerged: people have less and less time and less desire to cook. In fact, 64.6% of participants stated that they do not have time and 84% do not have the desire to cook after a day of work. This lack of time and desire is particularly acute in large cities. The reason? Faster lifestyles, smaller kitchens, and higher rents for city residents leave little free time or lack of ideal spaces to cook.
Fortunately, in Italy, the love for cooking has not completely disappeared, but it is easy to understand how a food delivery service can be a solution for those who face daily problems of what and when to cook. People are increasingly relying on these platforms, even when they have guests, as they offer an easy and accessible way to impress. The convenience of the service and its ease of access, with just a few simple steps, payment by credit card, PayPal, or even upon delivery, and with a maximum waiting time of 60 minutes for delivery, have brought a new vision of restaurant food consumption outside of restaurants, changing the habits of many families who previously prepared everything at home. Food delivery represents a kind of cultural revolution.
But what do people order online or from an app? International cuisine, particularly Japanese and Chinese, is at the top, followed by pizza, which is first in Italy and second in the rest of the world. Burgers (a must for the young) are also popular, with a growing focus on ingredient choices. There is also a lot of experimentation, as food delivery allows us to try different cuisines, those we may have only heard about but can now discover.
