Thursday, November 15, 2018

Takeaway.com notes

Very rough notes:

1. Gross Merchandise Value vs. Sales

Lesson learned from Takeaway (and Uber) is the difference between "Gross Merchandise Value" and company Sales. At a brick and mortar retailer, it is normal to define "Sales" as all the money customers give to the store. At Takeaway.com they say sales are the money recieved for transporting the food. That is "Gross Merchandise Value" minus the money the customer is paying (through Takeaway.com) to the restaurant for food. This is similar to the way retailer C&A work(s/ed). The focus is on "Deckungsbeitrag" (at C&A BCP Fund in Euros). Conventional Sales are largely irrelevant: www.profitperx.blogspot.com

2. "Growth hacking"

Takeaway.com is growing quickly and trying to stake a claim to market share to start making EBITDA profit sometime in 2019. Is there a Metcalfe's law in their business similar to eBay? They refer to "network effects" which seems reasonable. Is the business a good business?

The business model was easier when it was virtual, but new entrants (Foodora, Uber Eats, Deliveroo) have forced Takeaway's hand to start organizing physical delivery: Excerpt:

"Dat de bezorgmarkt aardig wat voeten in aarde heeft, blijft een feit, benadrukt Groen. 'Het is een zeer uitdagende activiteit. Het is voor ons organisatorisch veel moeilijker om een bezorger op de elektrische fiets te laten stappen dan een order te ontvangen en door te spelen aan een restaurant. Maar het is een goede investering, omdat we hierdoor meer orders binnen krijgen.' https://twinklemagazine.nl/2017/08/thuisbezorgd-scoober/index.xml

3. Scoober is part of https://www.lieferando.de/ ?

4. Valuation (orders of magnitude guesstimate): (Too difficult pile)

They are losing EUR 30m a year but growing. Say they earn EUR 50m a year x 15 multiple is a valuation of EUR 750m, current market cap EUR 2b seems a bit steep. Wouldn't buy at a price over EUR 25 per share, current price EUR 50 per share.

Do you speak Dutch? If so please opt-in at www.valuemachinesfund.nl Thanks in advance! Comments, questions or E-mails welcome: ajb@valuemachinesfund.nl

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