Talabat celebrates 15 years in the region

Food delivery service provider in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Talabat is marking 15 years of success this year with its customers and partner restaurants. Launched in 2004, when online food ordering was non-existent in the GCC, Talabat has since then played a leading role in transforming the way people experience food.

“Today, we have customers who order as much as four times a day, highlighting that Talabat is not an occasional choice, but an integral part of their everyday lives. Looking back 15 years ago, consumer behaviour towards food-ordering was very different in terms of frequency and experience. Talabat has not only been pivotal in transforming food-ordering behaviour but at a more macro-level we created additional income streams for the F&B industry and we facilitated the rise of e-commerce by establishing consumer trust towards online services,” says Toon Gyssels, COO, Talabat.

Even though Talabat started as a marketplace platform, the big appetite for food-ordering has led Talabat to shape the last mile delivery experience and expand into new services such as cloud kitchens. This provides customers access to more food choices, especially in areas that are under-served and ensures an uncompromising customer experience with fast delivery times and order-tracking for full transparency.

Talabat is at the heart of the region’s delivery-led revolution, with a recent KPMG report on the UAE’s food and beverage market alone citing that 86% of F&B outlets in the country are listed on delivery apps, and 68% have recorded reasonable volumes of bookings and orders through these apps. In the UAE alone, Talabat has a network of over 7,000 restaurant branches across all the Emirates. These statistics demonstrate that online food-ordering and delivery has become an important cornerstone for both restaurants and consumers.

“Our in-depth insight into the region’s consumers is a result of being part of the local community for over 15 years. This has enabled us to truly understand our customers by being part of their everyday lives. Building on these insights, Talabat continues to innovate and deliver new services that will simplify our customers’ lives even further,” Gyssels adds.