Although the Spanish on-demand delivery start-up, Glovo, had increasing popularity in the Egyptian market, it just announced that it’s abruptly halting work in the country. Yesterday the Spanish company announced that they’re exiting the markets in both Egypt and Chile!
Glovo’s convenience and accessibility in different parts of Cairo and Alexandria made the application popular in the Egyptian market despite the fierce competition between rival apps, and the fact that most restaurants already provided delivery service in Egypt since way back when. The food delivery market is dominated by Delivery Hero’s Otlob, but that didn’t stop Glovo from acquiring a double-digit market share in the highly-competitive food delivery market.
The news came when delivery partners received a message on their phones informing them about the decision. Glovo had a team of 40 employees, most of them in the customer care, in addition to the 5000 delivery partners. The news was shocking and sad for most of the delivery partners who may find themselves without work due to the surprising decision. According to different sources, the 40 employees were compensated for the rest of their contracts, and they’re going to work for the upcoming weeks to help Glovo wrap things up in Egypt.
Glovo still remains active in one MENA market; Morocco; where it expanded last year and now offers its services in Casablanca, Marrakech, and Rabat. When Glovo announced their expansion to Egypt, they had ambitious plans to expand in the MENA region; now we’re not sure if they are still sticking to their plans of expansion after they left the Egyptian market.
It is also known by insiders that Delivery Hero (Otlob’s mother company) has shares in Glovo international, so it looks like this is a calculated act by the shareholders to limit possible competition in the market.
