Just Eat vs Glovo

Just Eat was founded as a simple, digital directory where restaurants could post their menus, and customers could order food online. It was a low-cost, high-scale "aggregator" model. At the time, it didn't manage the delivery itself; it just connected the hungry customer to the local takeaway restaurant. This "asset-light" model allowed it to expand across Europe with incredible speed, building a dominant market share in a dozen different countries.

In a move to dominate the European market, Just Eat merged with Takeaway.com, creating a massive, pan-European digital-ordering powerhouse. The combined entity was designed to compete with the new wave of high-speed delivery startups (like Deliveroo and UberEats) that were threatening the traditional aggregator model. The merger was a defensive, scale-driven play to build a defensible moat of regional dominance.

The company spent billions to acquire the American giant Grubhub, an ambitious, high-stakes move meant to make Just Eat Takeaway a global leader. However, the integration was an operational and cultural disaster. The US market was far more competitive and logistics-heavy than the European aggregator market the firm was used to. The acquisition weighed down the entire group, eventually forcing them to sell Grubhub at a loss.

After the Grubhub failure, the company began a painful process of simplification. It cut its footprint, exited non-performing regions, and refocused on its core strength: high-margin, aggregator-led delivery in Western Europe. The goal was to stop the bleeding and prove that the original, "asset-light" aggregator model could still be highly profitable if it focused on the right geographic corridors.

By mid-2026, Just Eat Takeaway operates as a lean, focused, and profitable utility for European food delivery. It has successfully moved past its ill-fated global expansion attempt. By prioritizing its dominance in its core European markets and refining its logistics algorithms, the firm has stabilized as a disciplined, reliable pillar of the regional food-delivery economy.

Glovo was founded in Barcelona with a revolutionary "anything-delivery" thesis. Instead of just delivering restaurant food, Glovo built a network that could deliver anything: pharmacy items, groceries, retail goods, or even keys forgotten at home. This multi-category approach was incredibly popular in the Mediterranean and Latin American markets, where consumers valued the extreme flexibility and convenience of an on-demand courier service.

Glovo grew by targeting high-density, high-fragmentation markets in Southern Europe and Latin America, where infrastructure for existing delivery services was largely non-existent. By positioning itself as a "convenience tool" rather than just a "food delivery app," it built a deep, sticky customer base that used the platform for everything. This multi-category model allowed it to build higher order frequency than competitors focused only on restaurants.

To scale and compete against global giants, Glovo entered a strategic partnership with the German delivery powerhouse Delivery Hero, which eventually took a controlling stake in the company. This move provided Glovo with the massive capital and technical infrastructure it needed to maintain its lead in its primary regional markets. It became a key "regional hub" in Delivery Hero’s global network, allowing it to leverage shared logistics technology and operational expertise.

Glovo invested heavily in "dark stores"—small, decentralized local distribution centers—to speed up its non-food delivery logistics. This shift allowed it to offer near-instant delivery of retail and grocery items, further cementing its value proposition as an on-demand courier. The strategy was to move beyond simply connecting customers to stores and instead become a "logistics-first" infrastructure player in every city it served.

By mid-2026, Glovo remains the undisputed king of multi-category, on-demand logistics in its primary regions. It operates with a highly flexible, data-driven operational model that handles the entire, messy logistics of local commerce. Through its deep, operational-first approach and its position within the Delivery Hero ecosystem, Glovo serves as the essential logistics layer for the cities of Southern Europe and Latin America.