2022年12月20日

自由經濟科技記者的演出。得到它!得到它!得到它!西班牙,馬德裏- 12月29日:一個視圖從馬德裏街頭送貨上門工人在城市工作……[+]日夜,12月29日2021年在馬德裏,西班牙。自小說的第一天冠狀病毒(Covid-19)大流行,網上訂單應用程序和快遞運輸的需求增加了由於閉包和限製申請世界各地預防的目的。(圖片由胡安卡洛斯·羅哈斯羅德裏格斯/安納托裏亞機構通過蓋蒂圖片社)安納托裏亞機構通過蓋蒂圖片社Getir證實上周收購大猩猩時,並沒有感到驚訝。斥資12億美元,據報道,之間的快速購物快遞公司一直在猜測數周。整合兩個q-commerce公司標誌著一個重大貶值的大猩猩從它的前一個值32億美元。 Gorillas, based in Berlin, typified the 15-minute grocery delivery craze of 2020 and 2021, which saw VC investors flipping their checkbooks wide open. This year on the other hand has been a chaotic one for a sector that once soared but is now crashing to earth. In 2020, amid Covid-19 lockdowns and a surge in demand for online food ordering, Gorillas emerged as a darling of European tech. It offered grocery deliveries in cities in less than 15 minutes, via a network of warehouses – or dark stores, to use industry parlance – and delivery riders on bikes. Swiping open the app, a user could order a small basketful of items from candy to hot sauce to a carton of milk for speedy delivery straight to their door in minutes – assuming they were willing to pay the delivery fee of a couple of euros a pop. Gorillas were far from the only player to enter this space at the time with several start-ups joining the fray in the UK and mainland Europe. There was Flink in Germany and Weezy in the UK while US companies Gopuff had entered Europe. MORE FOR YOU Investors were taking notice. Gorillas raised over $1 billion from investors and similarly, companies like Flink raised hefty rounds to finance their operations. The sector came with notable criticisms about its economics though and some of those criticisms proved justified as 2021 drew to an end with a number of start-ups going under or being acquired by rivals. This included the UK’s Dija being picked up by Gopuff, less than a year after the former launched. It was a deal that would be prophetic of what lay ahead in 2022. First came the job cuts, a common theme in the broader tech industry in 2022. Gorillas laid off over 300 employees during the summer and exited a handful of major markets including Italy and Spain. Flink acquired France’s Cajoo in May of this year but downsized its operations by leaving the Austrian market. Getir, the Turkish company backed by Sequoia and Tiger Global, cut its headcount by 14% in May. Despite this setback, Getir has emerged the strongest of the lot. At the end of last year, it acquired Weezy, another short-lived player in the UK , and has now added Gorillas to its arsenal. These consolidations should not come as a big surprise. In 2022, the rapid grocery delivery sector faced a litany of headwinds. This year saw the end, for the most part, of Covid-19 restrictions with lockdowns no longer a feature of daily life in Europe. While food delivery and e-commerce blossomed during lockdowns, that online ordering behavior did not hold as firm when normality resumed. Ease and speed were a key selling point for these companies but a study earlier this year found consumers were not so enamored with getting groceries in 15 minutes. All of this was happening while the global economy declined thanks to soaring inflation and rising costs. The cost-of-living crisis is having – and will continue to have – a profound effect on consumer behavior and attitudes. Discretionary spending on food, with a premium delivery fee, is likely to take a hit. One should not bet on that changing too much in 2023. The final whammy is the effect that this economic downturn and rising interest rates will have on investor sentiment. The years of 2020 and 2021 were booming for VC deals. This is reflected in the massive rounds and valuations that q-commerce and grocery delivery companies were landing. In this new environment, raising money, especially at the later stages, will become increasingly difficult. We have already seen this in the wave of ‘down rounds’ in tech where companies have raised money at lower valuations than before. Where does this leave the 15-minute grocery delivery sector that once flew so high? For Getir, it is now in dominant position in Europe thanks to the whittling away of its competition. It has a presence in many major cities and now has the footprints of Weezy and Gorillas. But the company will still have to contend with the wider unfriendly economic environment. Follow me on Twitter .