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來源于《商業》版塊
Schumpeter
熊彼特企業管理專欄
Foodoo economics
食物經濟學
Meal delivery is anything but a tasty business
外賣絕不是一門美味的生意
Even those who recoil at eating supper out of a soggy box, fear being mowed down by curry-bearing cyclists or think the death of home cooking is a cultural abomination should admire Jitse Groen. The 41-year-old Dutchman, who cooked up the online food delivery business by founding Takeaway.com in his university bedroom in 2000, is not your usual tech billionaire. He keeps a low profile, views venture capital with distaste, earns a relatively unflashy six-figure salary and sometimes hops on the firm’s delivery bikes to help out. His main extravagance is a sharp Italian suit. So why did he, on July 29th, propose shelling out £8.2bn ($10.1bn) on shares for Just Eat, a large but struggling meals-on-wheels firm based in Britain?
即便是那些不敢在潮濕的盒子里吃晚飯、害怕被載著咖喱的自行車手鏟倒，或者認為家庭烹飪的消亡是一種文化憎惡的人，也應該欽佩吉特斯•格倫。這位41歲的荷蘭人不是常見的那種科技億萬富翁，2000年他在大學宿舍創建了Takeaway.com，策劃了網上送餐業務。他保持低調，厭惡風險投資，工資相對不高，只有六位數，有時還會跳上公司的送貨自行車幫忙。他的主要奢侈品是一套筆挺的意大利西裝。那么，為什么他在7月29日提議出資82億英鎊(合101億美元)購買Just Eat的股票呢? Just Eat是一家總部位于英國的大型但經營不善的上門送餐服務公司。
The answer says a lot about the voodoo economics of the food delivery industry. It is a hotly competitive business, attracting the world’s biggest moneybags such as Amazon, Alibaba and Soft- Bank. Balancing the needs of diners, cooks and couriers is fiendishly complicated. Most startups lose platefuls of money. Yet they have received more than $30bn from spellbound venture capitalists in the past five years. And they are likely to get more.
答案在很大程度上說明了食品外賣行業的巫毒經濟學。這是一項競爭激烈的業務，吸引了亞馬遜、阿里巴巴和軟銀行等全球最大的錢袋子。平衡食客、廚師和送餐員的需求極其復雜。大多數創業公司都會損失很多錢。然而，在過去5年里，他們已經從被迷住的風險投資家那里獲得了300多億美元。而且可能會得到更多。
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