- Data analytics
Delivery Hero ends Q4 2025 with growth in South Korea and Saudi Arabia
Delivery Hero's Q4 2025 update highlights a shift from discount-driven growth to sustainable market share, and what competitor coverage data shows.
Delivery Hero closed 2025 with a strong return to growth in South Korea and a massive acceleration in Saudi Arabia, surpassing its cash flow targets. Despite heavy competition and currency headwinds, the platform is doubling down on high-quality, "sticky" customers over those chasing temporary discounts.
On the Q4 2025 earnings call, CEO Niklas Östberg addressed the aggressive competition in the Middle East. He noted that rivals might gain short-term order volume by spending millions on vouchers, yet that does not amount to sustainable market share. This "predatory pricing" often attracts low-quality users who disappear once the subsidies stop. Delivery Hero is building a daily habit instead, through its subscription models and multi-vertical offerings like health, beauty, and electronics.
Saudi Arabia shows the shift most clearly, as new regulations now prevent platforms from using extreme pricing tactics that distort the market. Public order numbers often hide the underlying health of a business, and without granular data it is nearly impossible to tell a competitor that wins with a superior product from one that is buying growth that will eventually evaporate.
Manual app-checking misses the fundamental metrics. Monitoring how many restaurants are active across different platforms and tracking where exclusive partnerships are shifting reveals the true "category share" of a market, so a company can ignore the noise of a rival's marketing campaign and focus on where real customer loyalty is being built. AI agents now help predict demand, and accurate, real-world data on competitor coverage is what protects long-term margins.
Structural moats matter more than competitor discounts
With a target of 10 billion euro in quick commerce GMV for 2026, Delivery Hero is focused on the "hard, real-world execution" that digital-only disruptors cannot mimic. Platforms learn little by reacting to every competitor discount and much more by analyzing the structural moats of their rivals, and market share benchmarking shows where a brand truly stands against the competition and where its genuine growth opportunities are.
If you want to know which rivals are buying growth with vouchers and which are building loyalty, contact DoubleData.
Source: Delivery Hero Q4 2025 Trading Update
