The merger of the two delivery leaders was rejected by the Fair Trade Commission.
In May 2024, Uber Technologies announced that it had acquired the Taiwan operations of foodpanda, a subsidiary of Germany's Delivery Hero, for US$950 million, a move that generated widespread interest in the Taiwan delivery market.
Background of the Merger Scheme
Uber Eats and foodpanda are the two main competitors in the Taiwan delivery market, with a combined market share of more than 90%. Uber plans to combine its global operating experience with foodpanda's local merchant network through this acquisition to provide consumers with more choices and improve service efficiency.
The point of view of the delivery dough is partly in favor and partly against, in favor of the foodpanada's mandatory upstairs dissatisfaction, and did not choose a specific period of time, the panda's salary is lower than the Uber eats, the merger is equal to the delivery staff to give a pay rise and do not have to do free upstairs service.
The objection part is what most people are arguing, that a monopoly occurs when the market share exceeds 90%.
The worst thing that can happen to a delivery person ispay reduction
Like the January 2020 Panda pay cut of 20%, there's almost no room for the delivery guys to fight back, at best they'll just go run uber eats instead.
Uber eats pay cuts are also ferocious, in 2020 I was making $350, $400+ per hour running whatever trip awards I wanted, but starting in 2024 I have to run full trip awards to have a chance of making $300+ per hour.
The following figure (1) is an extreme situation, which does not happen anymore, probably because the number calculated by the algorithm is too ugly and just caught by the screenshot.
The graph below shows the dynamic incentive bonus, which can still be spiked up to 2.5x 3.5x at night. The night bonus used to be a real thing, but now that the night is not jammed at night, it has instead become the worst area for pay cuts.
The Uber eats screen used to look like this, but now it's being used by pandas.
Now the uber eats screen has become like this, basically all 1.0x, dynamic additions all hidden from view, to avoid too smart deliveryman can calculate the payroll on the wrong.
But frankly speaking, I am not surprised if the merger is successful. Can an employee resist his boss?
With a $950 million acquisition, is it possible to be smart and take a few million to ”maneuver” the merger?
Plus the deliverymen are famously disunited, like the December 2024 siren protest outside the courthouse
Uber Eats merger rejected, 200 delivery workers protest with sirens outside fairgrounds
Delivery workers in Taiwan has long exceeded the 100,000 mark, resident delivery workers also have a few thousand, but willing and free to go to the people after all is still a minority, the march can only gather 200 people also explains a lot of problems, I myself did not go to participate because of the matter.
A lot of people worry about delivery pay cuts and higher delivery rates, but will most people stop ordering delivery because of a $10 increase? That's impossible, isn't it? The highest frequency is once or twice a week, so an extra $10 or $20 doesn't really hurt, but it's the paychecks of the delivery workers that really hurt.
However, the hourly wage of delivery workers is absolutely better than the Labor Standards Act, in contrast to other jobs in Taiwan, many enterprises are still often in violation of the Labor Standards Act, especially overtime is not paid overtime, only compensatory time off, special time off is not given to the rest, the salary structure is chaotic demolition, a bunch of subsidies and bonuses to support to the legal range, but there is nothing wrong with the deduction of bonuses in the case of worse than the lousy, the delivery workers are still considered to be a good job with good pay.
Benefits of a failed merger
On the other hand the merger failure is also a good thing, can spend 950 million U.S. dollars to acquire, Uber eats is a company is not a philanthropist, wool must come out of the sheep, so these money is bound to be paid by the people of Taiwan, if the merger is successful, then uber eats at least can be in the Taiwan market monopoly for more than 20 years, 20 years to 950 million U.S. dollars back to earn is necessary. Unless the government strongly supports other delivery platforms, right?
Post-merger technical issues
After all, the delivery dough is originally an engineer, after looking at the two sides of the platform algorithm, although on the surface are said to be able to receive foodpanada's clientele as well as the store, but the two sides in fact each have their own advantages, uber eats claimed that (should be) all the point to bring the product is diverse, but also cause theHard disadvantage of slow deliveryThe most simple and brutal way is to abandon one of the practices, but the profit should drop very much, and Uber eats is also very exaggerated in the low pay of the long-distance orders, almost only to the minimum hourly wage and +1 yuan per kilometer of freight.
Although many delivery staff suggest not to order far away, but uber eats app open, but often only show the far away stores, such as in the Wenshan District but open are in the Yonghe store, etc. I know customers do not mean to order far away, but Uber eats platform still has a lot of room for improvement .....