BusinessThe gig-economy -- How can we be heroes?The European market is a tough terrain for food delivery firms.Delivery Hero has had a good run in the past couple of years.In August 2020 it ascended to the Dax, the stockmarket index of Germany’s most valuable listed firms. It is present in 50 countries on four continents.Revenue for the third quarter was 1.8bn euros ($2bn), a jump of 89% compared with the same period in 2020.“We grew 100% before Corona, 100% during Corona and we will grow 100% after Corona,” says Niklas Ostberg, the Berlin-based firm’s Swedish chief executive.By number of orders Delivery Hero is more than twice as big as DoorDash, its large American rival.Even so, DoorDash’s market capitalisation is $58bn, more than that of Delivery Hero ($31bn) and Just Eat Takeaway.com ($13bn), the two big European food-delivery firms, combined.European shares tend in general to underperform American ones.But another reason for investors’ caution is more specific to food delivery.Strict labour laws, a tradition of union organising, pricey unskilled workers and stingy customers, who buy little and tip rarely, make Europe the toughest of all continents for the business.Mr Ostberg says that high labour costs have become less of a problem in Europe, because the efficiency of delivery has improved substantially in recent years.
