{"id":280197,"date":"2025-11-12T19:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T19:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/280197\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T19:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T19:54:12","slug":"menulog-is-closing-down-in-australia-later-this-month-heres-what-we-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/280197\/","title":{"rendered":"Menulog is closing down in Australia later this month. Here’s what we know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia will farewell its second-largest food delivery platform, Menulog, in two weeks’ time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company’s abrupt closure<\/a> has raised questions about whether Australia “can have a competitive food delivery market”, a concern for industry analysts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How did all of this happen, and how is it going to affect Australians?<\/p>\n

Here’s what we know.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What happened?<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Food delivery company Menulog announced on its website it will stop operating in Australia in two weeks.<\/p>\n

Menulog shared a statement online from its managing director Morten Belling about the closure, here it is in full:<\/p>\n

“Today is a tough day for the Menulog business and I would like to reassure everyone this decision was not taken lightly.<\/p>\n

“Our priority now is to support our customers, couriers and partners. This is why we are providing everyone a two-week transition period, in which customers can redeem unused vouchers and credits. Additionally, eligible couriers will be entitled to a 4-week voluntary payment.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Menulog’s failure has raised the question of whether Australia can have a competitive food delivery market, Dr Veen says.\u00a0 (AAP: Joel Carrett)<\/p>\n

“The Menulog platform will remain active until Wednesday November 26 at 23:59 AEDT. We would like to sincerely thank everyone who has partnered and supported Menulog over the years,” Mr Belling said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Why is Menulog shutting down in Australia?<\/p>\n

In its statement, Menulog said it had been “navigating challenging circumstances” and its local closure would allow it to “focus on accelerating growth and investments in other markets”.<\/p>\n

Andrew Ledovkikh, a senior industry analyst from IBISWorld, told the ABC that the company was exiting the industry after seeing a rapid collapse in its market share.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Menulog was really struggling with a declining market share and revenue and consecutive years of losses,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Ledovkikh highlighted that Menulog invested heavily in marketing campaigns that failed to translate into market-share growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“For all of Menulog\u2019s advertising efforts, it\u2019s hard to compete when your competitor can effectively cross-sell your entire target market.<\/p>\n

Menulog to close in Australia<\/a><\/p>\n

Food delivery company Menulog says it will cease operating in Australia in two weeks’ time.<\/p>\n

“Uber was stepping up their efforts in this regard since late 2021, by offering the Uber One membership service, which provided a single subscription with benefits across both their Uber Eats and rideshare services.”<\/p>\n

In 2024, a report from IBISWorld showed Menulog had faced stiff competition from Uber.<\/p>\n

According to the report, profitability was a significant issue for Menulog with the food delivery company reporting substantial losses in recent years.<\/p>\n

Menulog’s costly marketing campaigns which have involved famous music artists including: Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, Latto and Snoop Dogg also contributed to the company’s high operating costs.<\/p>\n

In July 2023, Menulog’s parent company Just Eats announced a cut to its marketing expenditure globally to reduce spending in Australia.<\/p>\n

Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n

“Despite growth in consumer demand, all is not well in the casino capitalism world of the gig economy,” said Alex Veen, a senior lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney Business School.<\/p>\n

“Menulog has been a long-term player in the delivery platform market but has seen its market share decrease significantly, from around 80 per cent in 2014 to less than 25 per cent,” Dr Veen said.<\/p>\n

How does Menulog’s closure affect Australia?<\/p>\n

It could jeopardise a competitive food delivery market \u2014 which consumers would benefit from \u2014 in Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Ledovkikh said the exit of Menulog was more a symptom of a shift towards a monopoly rather than the beginning of one.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re getting closer to a complete monopoly in the online food delivery space,” he told the ABC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That obviously raises the prospect of reduced competition, higher prices and decline in service quality.<\/p>\n

“Uber still has to compete with DoorDash and the possibility of new entrants, but the demise of one of their largest competitors definitely strengthens their market position.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Uber, Menulog, and DoorDash account for more than 90 per cent of the food delivery market share in Australia.\u00a0 (Supplied: IBISWorld)<\/p>\n

Menulog accounted for 23.8 per cent of the Australian market share, making it the second-largest player, according to IBISWorld’s 2024 Online Food Ordering and Delivery Platforms report.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, \u00a0Uber Australia had more than half of the share \u2014 53.8 per cent \u2014 DoorDash Australia took 14.6 per cent.<\/p>\n

Deliveroo stopped operating in Australia in 2022.<\/p>\n

What do we expect next?<\/p>\n

Australians are warned of rising prices if the monopoly worsens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Anytime you see an industry consolidate massive market share and approach monopolistic power, you expect to see price increases,” said Mr Ledovkikh from IBISWorld.<\/p>\n

“I think Uber will still have to be careful, as there\u2019s some strong substitute competition from consumers … if they push prices and consumers too far.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This is probably particularly true amid a cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n

“Even at the peak of the inflationary crisis, in 2022-23, spending on online food delivery platforms continued to grow.”<\/p>\n

Mr Ledovkikh noted that consumers had been loath to give up online food ordering due to rising living expenses and weak wage growth in recent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia will farewell its second-largest food delivery platform, Menulog, in two weeks’ time.\u00a0 The company’s abrupt closure has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,18679,30164,16921,27595,162282,161627,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-280197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-closure","11":"tag-consumers","12":"tag-food-delivery","13":"tag-gig-economy","14":"tag-just-eats","15":"tag-menulog","16":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}