Discovering the Food Delivery Landscape in the Middle East

In today’s article, we wanted to shift focus from Europe, and dive into some of the Middle Eastern markets, analyzing key trends and platform performance across Turkey, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. 

These five markets combined are projected to reach a CAGR (2024-2029) of 10.4% on average, and they will likely hit US$25bn in revenue by 2029. [1]

The analysis was made based on the top platform from each country: Yemeksepeti (Turkey), Talabat (UAE), Foodpanda (Pakistan), Hungerstation (Saudi Arabia) and Glovo (Kazakhstan).

For a better comparison of Food Delivery density across these markets, we’ve analyzed the number of digital storefronts per 100,000 habitants.

Now that we understand the concentration of Food Delivery services, how can we expect these numbers to change in the future? We looked into the growth of digital storefronts in each platform over the past quarter.

Key takeaways

- Yemeksepeti in Turkey is the biggest platform in number of digital storefronts (DSFs), but it slightly declined with -5.2% from Q4 to Q1 (going from 80.9k to 76.6k DSFs)

- Pakistan leads regional growth, showing a +7.3% increase in digital storefronts (DSFs) from Q4 2023 to Q1 2024, from 15.4k to 16.6k on the Foodpanda platform

- The UAE and Saudi Arabia also show robust growth with Talabat in the UAE increasing from 38k to 40.2k listings (a 5.7% growth), and Hungerstation in Saudi Arabia increasing from 38.8k to 41.2k DSFs (a 6.2% growth)

- In contrast, Glovo in Kazakhstan, as a newer market, shows a growth rate of 4.5%, reaching 4.5k DSFs in the first quarter of this year

Despite local culinary delights, the presence of Western cuisine in the FSA space in the Middle East is quite significant. We checked amongst the digital storefronts in the platforms, to what extent they are offering burgers or pizza. Here’s what we found:

- Across the five platforms that we checked, there is a presence of burger offerings that ranges between 13.0% to 32.0%

- When it comes to the availability of pizza locations, it can vary from 6.0% up to almost 20.0% in number of digital storefronts

These insights on platform presence and cuisines can help brands tailor their offerings to meet local demands and identify potential opportunities in the market.

The immense volume of data available today holds untapped potential for shaping effective strategies in the food delivery sector. With Dashmote’s analytics, brands can transform complex data sets into actionable insights that propel growth and innovation, particularly in the dynamic market of the Middle East.

Dashmote assists enterprises in overcoming obstacles in the digital market space. As the foremost provider of big data and AI analytics solutions in the F&B sector, we enable informed strategic choices. Reach out to our team at contact@dashmote.com to establish a robust online footprint.

If you find this article valuable, you may also be interested to check out more of our blog articles on franchises, such as An Analysis of Spain’s Food Delivery Landscape and Empowering Heineken NL’s Online Presence Through Data-Driven Strategies. 

Follow us on LinkedIn @Dashmote to stay up-to-date with the latest food delivery data insights globally.