Different market, but Gojek does it profitably. They do delivery, ride hailing, and a bunch of other stuff, and all of their segments are profitable, except ride hailing. They also have a slightly different model, which might not work in other markets. They don’t need to onboard merchants in the same way, because with them the driver pays for the order, and then the customer pays the driver, either in-app or with cash.
Interesting business model, but Jakarta is insanely dense (largest city in APAC) which is probably why its more profitable. In the U.S. you have urban sprawl and suburbs, which increase variable costs of delivery.
Jakarta has ridiculous urban sprawl, has worse traffic than any city in the US, and floods for months in the year. I lived there for years, it’s much harder to get around than LA or NY.
The driver doesn’t take on any liability at all, it’s all backed by the company. I’m not sure why you’re so keen to shit on this business when you don’t seem to know anything about it or the market it operates in.
