Foodpanda Hong Kong eats up rival

Foodpanda Hong Kong has just bought rival Delivery.com’s local operation to consolidate its leadership in the local food delivery market.

The move is the latest by the five year old, 49 per cent Rocket Internet-owned startup to streamline its international operations, focusing on core Asian areas. Just a year ago, Foodpanda operated in 40 countries around the world. Now having exited Africa, Latin America and even some Asian countries, like Vietnam, the company is focusing on 24 in Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Foodpanda Hong Kong has paid an undisclosed amount to buy the Delivery.com business, which focused more on the corporate sector and office workers. Besides taking a competitor out of the market, the deal will add depth to the flow of business during the day, adding more daytime turnover to the night-time, largely residential trade, where it is already strong.

In a statement, Didier Bensadoun, president of Delivery.com Hong Kong, said the two businesses were the first two entrants into the maket, in 2014.

“Working together we will continue to solidify a position of leadership.”

Delivery.com marks Foodpanda Hong Kong’s third acqisition: It has already swallowed by local startups Dial a Dinner and Koziness.

The company’s strategy is to acquire rivals to consolidate its market share. Where it cannot do that –in Vietnam, for example – it withdraws.