Laurențiu-Stelian MIHAI
University of Craiova, Craiova, Romania
In the last few years, the use of food delivery applications has increased in Romania in general and in Craiova, in particular. Food delivery applications such as Food Panda, Takeaway.com, Glovo and Uber Eats provide a simple and fast way for people to order their food online and have it delivered relatively fast. These applications quickly expanded due to aggressive marketing tactics, funded by large injections of capitol from a wide range of investors. This study aims to study how the restaurants perceive these food delivery applications. Can they be considered a business partner which offers fair terms for both parties or are they a necessary evil? In order to answer these questions, we conducted a survey on 37 restaurants, and we tried to find their opinion on several aspects, such as the biggest advantages and disadvantages of food delivery applications. Our findings have shown that restaurants tend to use food delivery application because they bring them more visibility and at the same time, there is a correlation between the age of the restaurants’ and their perception of food delivery applications, meaning that younger restaurants tend to see the food delivery applications as more useful.