Final Project

Media Entrepreneurship

Topic: Analysis between 2 Corporate Sectors Food Panda & Cheetay

Submitted to:

Sir Sheraz

Submitted By:
M Asim Shafique (426)

Department of Media and Communication Studies

National University of Modern Languages

Lahore Campus
Industry Overview
There is a lot of potential in the E-commerce of Pakistan, with many companies moving towards
the digital world. According to a study, 84% of the organizations in Pakistan have an internet
account.1 Pakistan’s e-commerce industry has rapidly increased over past few years. According
to Dawn, Punjab, being the largest province contributes most in e-commerce (i.e. 55%), Sindh is
on the second number (i.e. 36%), KPK contributes 5%, while Baluchistan only contributes 2%.2

Pakistan’s e-commerce market was valued at $120 million in 2017 and is expected to hit the $1
billion mark by 2020 if current trends in the sector continue.3

The Pakistani government is also taking keen interest in digitization of business in the country
and is taking actions to help the businesses grow. A major barrier to the growth of the e-
commerce sector so far has been the cash-driven nature of the Pakistani economy, with only a
small percentage of the population having access to credit and debit cards. 4 According to the
Commerce Ministry of Pakistan, CoD accounted for 60% of the total e-commerce transactions in
2020.5
However, according to the governing body State Bank of Pakistan, number of e-commerce
merchants accepting digital payments in Pakistan have increased rapidly. In 2018, Pakistan’s
ecommerce industry recorded a massive increase of 93.7% to reach PKR 40.1 Bn from
PKR.20.7 Bn in 2017. 6

In FY17, there were only 571 e-commerce merchants accepting digital payments, but this
number rose to 1,094 till the end of FY18.7 Hence, it won’t be wrong to say that the future of e-
commerce in Pakistan is bright.

About Foodpanda
Foodpanda was found in 2012 as a food delivery service. Soon after, the company launched in
multiple countries across South East Asia like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand
(Foodpanda). The company was acquired by Delivery Hero, a Germany-based organization, in
2016. Currently operating in 50 countries and around 246 cities, Foodpanda has partnered with
115,000 restaurants since its inception (Foodpanda).

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce_in_Pakistan
2 https://www.dawn.com/news/1549691
3 http://www.internetretailer.pk/2019/10/28/pakistans-e-commerce-market-to-hit-1-billion-mark-by-2020/
4 https://pakistanshining.com/pakistans-ecommerce-market-hit-1billion-mark-2020/
5 https://www.arabnews.pk/node/1700646/pakistan
6 https://www.kcci.com.pk/research/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/E-commerce-A-Solution-to-
Pakistanshttps://www.kcci.com.pk/research/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/E-commerce-A-
Solution-to-Pakistans-Economic-Woes.pdfEconomic-Woes.pdf
Brand History
Foodpanda Pakistan
In 2013, Rocket Internet came to Pakistan and launched
Daraz and Foodpanda. In the first half of 2015,
Foodpanda acquired one of its biggest rivals at the time,
EatOye, and captured 90% of online Food Delivery
Market. EatOye was launched as a startup in 2011, by
Mr. Nauman Sikander. Originally named as Food
Connection Pakistan, the company started as an online
review platform. However, with the launch of Foodpanda
in Pakistan, Food Connection Pakistan rebranded itself as
an online food ordering platform, Eat Oye (Nierynck,
2019).
At the time of acquisition, 50-60 people were
the combined workforce of this organization.
and had access to 1000 restaurants. The food
market was worth Rs 15 Bn at this time.
Currently, Foodpanda is operating in Karachi,
Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sialkot.
(About
Us: Foodpanda, n.d.). Additionally,
in 2018, Foodpanda expanded its
operations in Multan, Hyderabad and Peshawar
(Startups: TechJuice, 2018).

Rocket Internet
Rocket Internet is a European Company, based in
Berlin, Germany. The company builds start-ups and
owns shareholdings in various models of internet retail
businesses.
The company model is called a start-up studio or
venture builder. It provides office spaces to the start-
ups at its headquartered in Berlin with IT support,
marketing and other services like: access to investors.
Till 2016, Rocket Internet had almost 28,000
employees in its network of 100 companies in 110 countries.8

7 https://www.sbp.org.pk/reports/annual/arFY18/Chapter -07.pdf
Delivery Hero
In May 2011 Niklas Östberg founded Delivery Hero
and began his journey of building a leading global
business in online food ordering.9

Delivery Hero SE is a European multinational

online food-delivery service based in Berlin,
Germany. The company operates in 40+ countries
internationally in Europe, Asia, Latin America and
the Middle East and partners with 600,000+
restaurants. Delivery Hero processed more than 666
million orders in 2019.
In 2016, Foodpanda, an individual brand working under the umbrella of Rocket Internet was
taken over by Delivery Hero, Berlin based company. As soon as Delivery Hero took Foodpanda
over, global rebranding of the brand was done, and its logo was changed.
Despite the acquisition leading to a massive transfer of assets and markets between the
organizations, most of the people of Pakistan do not even know the names of Rocket Internet and
Delivery Hero.
Acquisition by Delivery Hero
In 2016, Foodpanda, an individual brand working under the umbrella of Rocket Internet was
taken over by Delivery Hero, a Berlin based company. As soon as Delivery Hero took
Foodpanda over, global rebranding of the brand was done.

Foodpanda’s acquisition increased the size of Delivery Hero’s market greatly by the addition of
new countries in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and Asia. This acquisition also served
Delivery Hero to consolidate its position in the Middle Eastern market (Delivery Hero acquires
foodpanda, 2016).
The acquisition led to the transfer of assets, markets and infrastructure, but most of the people of
Pakistan did not even know the name of Rocket Internet and are still unfamiliar with Delivery
Hero. According to the Marketing Associate, Mr. Hamza Zubairi, this has worked to the favor of
Foodpanda as majority of the Pakistani population still thinks that Foodpanda is a Pakistani
Brand.
Adjustment post takeover
As soon as Delivery Hero took over Foodpanda in 2016, global rebranding of the brand was
done, and its logo and color were changed from orange to a bold pink, just like its sister brand,
Foodora. This color change was to differentiate the brand in a market which had a lot of players
with the said orange color.

8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Internet
9 https://www.deliveryhero.com/about/
There was also a change in the overall identity of the brand, which was more modern, sleek and
aesthetic relative to the prior brand identity. This rebranding was carried out in 190 cities in 12
countries. The rebranding also involved revamp of Foodpanda’s app and websites, both of which
were enhanced with newer, more user-friendly features, like live tracking of orders and dynamic
delivery times. Foodpanda’s delivery fleet was also part of this rebranding through changes
made in the delivery bags and uniforms of the delivery riders. According to Laura Kantor, Head
of marketing at Foodpanda back then, despite the massive rebrand and takeover by Delivery
Hero, Foodpanda would continue its highly customer centric approach and localized campaigns,
both of which have been a huge part of Foodpanda’s marketing strategy before the acquisition.
(From orange to pink: foodpanda undergoes global rebrand, 2017).

Foodpanda operates as an individual brand under the new parent company, Delivery Hero. Most
of the people in Pakistan are not aware of Rocket Internet and Delivery Hero and therefore think
that Foodpanda is still a Pakistani brand. Following its takeover by Delivery Hero, Foodpanda
relied heavily on its quirky and humorous advertisements to communicate its new brand
personality to the customers.

Brand Vision
Foodpanda Pakistan’s vision is to primarily be a great company that is contributing towards
building a great nation i.e. Pakistan. In addition to this, they do not just want to be a delivery
service that is there for people as a luxury, but as an essential brand that helps people and saves
time for them to invest in other more important things. Hence, they want to be an essential part
of the everyday lives of the Pakistani people.
Core Purpose
The main purpose of Foodpanda is to provide a delivery solution to the people across the world,
which also connects with their values. It also wants to always aim high so that it can grow
exponentially in the market.
Core Values
Foodpanda has the same set of core values as its parent company, Delivery Hero. The three core
values are:
1. Deliver solutions
2. Always aim higher
3. We are heroes because we care
Envisioned Future
Foodpanda’s goal is to become the world’s fastest, most innovative business in the good food
sector.
Evolution through the Years
Foodpanda, which only had access to 750 restaurants before its acquisition of Eat Oye, has
already achieved the milestone of onboarding 5000 restaurants in the nationwide inventory in
2018 with 3000 of these restaurants onboarded in 2018 only. Foodpanda offers its customers
more than 39 types of cuisines (42% Pizzas, 28% Burgers, 16% Pakistani, 7% for Continental
and Chinese & Thai each) and over 25000 dishes to choose from.
In addition to food, Foodpanda has added two more verticals, recently, which are:
1. Panda Mart.
2. Homechefs.

Panda Mart, which was launched in April 2020,

delivers different essential grocery items including:
drinks, pharmaceuticals and even electronics through
the Foodpanda app. While Foodpanda Pakistan had
prior plans to launch this vertical, the pandemic served
to accelerate this launch as the brand considered it to
be a major need of the hour. Foodpanda having
special permissions from the government for their
delivery system of food along with a strong logistics
system and network of riders, was able to pull off this
launch within a record time of a week only.
People were a bit skeptical regarding the category in the beginning and confused about how to
order groceries from a food delivery application, but with the passage of time, more people have
become receptive to the Panda Mart and now this vertical is growing exponentially.
Home chefs was another vertical started by
Foodpanda in early 2020, but, during the pandemic,
when many restaurants were closed for some time, this
vertical was focused on much more than earlier.
Foodpanda claims that people could earn up to Rs
50,000 by being a home chef at Foodpanda. While this
vertical was operational in many other cities, Karachi
alone served to provide as many as 4500 orders for
Ghar ka Khana, earlier this year. It also gave people to
earn the opportunity of earning by just referring the
homechefs. The refer-and-earn model of Foodpanda
requires a person to refer a home chef. If their referred
home chef gets onboard and completes just 50 orders during the first month, then the person who
referred them would get Rs.4000 (originally Rs.5000) as a reward. Moreover, Foodpanda has
also provided bonuses and cashback deals to support the home chefs in establishing their
business through the platform of Foodpanda.
Competitor Analysis
Cheetay
Overview
Cheetay was started in Lahore in 2015 by Ahmed Haleem Khan, who also led popular online
ventures like Rocket Internet’s Daraz and Kaymu. It started off focusing on food delivery but
currently, it also has verticals of Grocery(C-mart), Pharma and Tiffin for customers’
convenience. Additionally, Cheetay has also introduced the categories of beauty, baby care and
books. It is currently operating in Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur and Faisalabad. It
entered the Karachi market in June 2019.
As of September 2019, Cheetay, which claims to be the fastest-growing tech-enabled logistics
player in the country, had 100,000 registered users and 3,000 vendors on its platform.

The company’s vision is “to lead Pakistan’s tech revolution by developing and harnessing
local talent while improving the lives of countless Pakistanis by creating employment
opportunities in the country.”

Cheetay won a Gold Effie for the Best Creative & Innovative Digital Video Advertisement based
on the popular show, Game of Thrones, in the category that recognizes emerging brands that
have a strong impact in comparison to big players. Cheetay was also able to raise up to 7.8
million through US-based investors in 2019, which was the highest amount ever raised by a
Pakistani startup. In 2019, Cheetay also won three prestigious P@SHA ICT awards for Best
Startup, Best Supply Chain Logistics and Best Digital Marketing & Advertising.
As a multicategory business, Cheetay
isn’t only competing with Foodpanda
but also with organizations like
Daraz, TCS Hazir, Yayvo.
In 2020, Cheetay revamped itself by
changing its logo and the color
scheme from yellow and white to a
combination of bright orange and
white.

Cheetay’s business model focuses on fulfilment where the merchant aims to deliver an order to
the buyer by focusing on its resource optimization. To do this, Cheetay uses strategies like
effective allocation of riders and better time utilization. Cheetay, unlike Foodpanda and Eat
Mubarak, does not rely on freelancers to work for them as riders. Instead, it has an in-house fleet
with riders on its payroll. According to Founder, Ahmed Khan, Cheetay’s plan was always to
compete across various categories for order fulfilment, which also explains why it has been able
to emerge as a pioneer in categories like online grocery, healthcare and home-cooked food with
Cheetay Tiffin- something which Foodpanda has only introduced recently.
Cheetay is also committed to driving significant social impact in areas of women empowerment,
environment protection, the digitization of the economy, and local SME business enhancement.
Social Media
Cheetay is also very active on social media. It has
around 207,000 likes on Facebook with over more
than 8000 posts up till now on their Facebook
page. In addition to promoting their different
campaigns, Cheetay also engages customers on
special occasions like Eid, Independence Day,etc.
Starting 20020, Cheetay started promoting its
brand by changing the profile picture on these
occasions. They do so by using matching color
combinations and adding the tagline of the special
occasion along with their logo.
Moreover, Cheetay has been doing a good job handling
the customer complaints and queries on its social media
accounts and has been very responsive. Regardless of
the number of comments a post has, Cheetay tries to
keep up by responding to everyone.
Cheetay has around 34.5k followers and is following 0
accounts on Instagram, with a very aesthetic feed with a
predominantly orange and white color scheme. With
over 700 followers and 13 following count, Cheetay’s
Twitter account is quite active too and has many posts
common with its Facebook account.
Eat Mubarak
Overview
Eat Mubarak launched their food delivery service in

September 2018 with the aim to reach out to every

foodie in the most convenient way possible.

Currently there are about

3500+ restaurants on board delivering in 6 major

cities of Pakistan. Over 500,000 people have

downloaded the application with the number steadily growing.

Social Media

Eat Mubarak is highly active on social media with a growing audience of 92,000 followers on

Facebook, 31,000 on Instagram but only 500 on twitter. On Facebook there are about 50 posts

per month usually about the current promotions going on with the Tagline ‘Get your Khana

Delivered’. The posts are also categorized according which city the promotion is going on,

usually with a photo frame with the City’s Stamp. Even with high number of posts customer

engagement is negligible as one post receives 5-6 likes with 0 comments while a sponsored post

will get about 100 likes and 20 comments. On Instagram usually posts had 50 percent of the

picture covered with texts and colors rather than emphasizing on the picture of the dish. Twitter

was the most inactive platform where Eat Mubarak posted very little and there was absolutely no

customer engagement with no retweets.