Iran Ride-Hailing Service Snapp to Deliver Food

The largest ride-hailing service provider in Iran, Snapp, is set to enter the fast-food delivery industry with a new upgrade to its growing range of services.

The announcement by the firm comes after the recent introduction of another service dubbed 'Snapp Box' which takes on rivals from motorbike services like AloPeyk.

Snapp is co-owned by Germany’s Rocket Internet and MTN-Irancell through its holding company, Iran Internet Group.  Making use of funds from the two, Snapp has emerged as a dominant player among the expanding ride-hailing sector.

It is pushing harder and faster than many of its competitors launching new  sub-services like a women-only service and the option to ride with 'premium' Hyundai and Toyota cars instead of the vehicles normally used as cabs.

Moreover, the firm has fended off attempts by firms trying to throttle their services including taxi agencies who have been strongly protesting the ride-hailing companies' cheaper prices by more than one-third.

>Winners of Food Delivery

Several businesses have entered the fast-food ordering industry of late with their near identical applications and websites. However, there are three dominant players for now, namely zoodfood.com, chilivery.com and reyhoon.com — each backed by a startup accelerator or a venture capital fund.

Zoodfood is owned by the same holding as Snapp, the Iran Internet Group.

Snapp is yet to announce how the food delivery service will fall in line with Zoodfood's offer. It is likely they will offer incentives to shop owners to use their service with tempting discounts.

Reports published by SimilarWeb shows that the three online food delivery companies are indeed heading in different directions.

Reyhoon, backed by Sarava Pars is having a rather rough time according to results from similarweb.com. According to the analytical site, by June 17 – the latest date available for total visits – the group saw a significant drop in hits. In September 2016 the site had over 300,000 views on the website, but by June 2017, it fell by more than a half to 139,600.

The newest of the bunch, Chilivery, backed by seasoned startup professionals, the Sadeghian cousins, owners of the group buying website netbarg.com have also had a bumpy few months.

Chilivery.com has lost ground to its rivals recently coming in third  at 45,000 site visits in June.

The current leader of the three food delivery startups is zoodfood.com which had twice as many views as its competitor Reyhoon. With Snapp coming up with its food delivery service, it is not clear how IIG’s next venture can or will affect the business.

> Motorbike Delivery Onslaught

With Snapp Box the company is set to compete with other delivery applications, like Hamloo and Alopeyk which have grabbed a bigger share of the motorbike delivery market in recent months.  

Like the already established apps, the service locates the closest driver in the vicinity of the customer and significantly reduces waiting time.

Snapp claims to offer both ride-hailing and motorbike delivery services in three cities — Tehran, Karaj, and Isfahan. This is while its main rival Alopeyk only serves Tehran.

According to CEO and co-founder of Alopeyk, Mehdi Nayebi, the company is set to enter the food delivery industry in the near future. If Alopeyk ‘delivers’ on this goal, it will have opened a new front in the clash with Snapp.