World's largest takeaway website launches in Dubai

Hoping to pull in $2m of sales in its first year of operation, a Turkish entrepreneur has launched the world’s largest ‘food portal’ or takeaway delivery website in the UAE.

Foodonclick.com is a joint venture with yemeksepeti.com, which has over 800,000 users ordering from more than 4,000 restaurants in Turkey.

The UAE is the company’s third market after Turkey and Russia.

Customers place food orders online, without paying a premium for the service, and the order is then sent to the relevant restaurant. Unlike most delivery websites, customers can opt to pay cash on delivery, rather than inputting their credit card details.

“It’s a very multicultural environment here and the weather conditions are tough, so people tend to order out more,” yemeksepeti.com founder Nevzat Aydin told Arabian Business on Wednesday.

“Food delivery sales are increasing by double-digit margins every year, so for us it’s a great environment to try this service out.”

The website is now live in Dubai and will be rolled out to Sharjah and Abu Dhabi in “a couple of weeks”.

Aydin said that start-up investment in the website so far had amounted to around $500,000, not including software expenses.

“For the first year, we will invest around $1m in marketing, and hope to reach around $2m in sales during the first twelve months,” the entrepreneur added.

The website has already signed partnership deals with 600 restaurants in the UAE, including major brands such as Wagamama, Pizza Express, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Dominos Pizza, as well as a host of local outlets.

In addition, there is no initial investment required by outlets wishing to partake in the scheme.

“If we achieve a certain amount of orders through the restaurant at the end of the month, we send them an invoice and charge them a commission rate for those orders,” Aydin said.