What’s the first thing that comes up in our minds when we think of the word ‘home delivery’ in Qatar? Talabat.

Did you know that this giant e-commerce tech expanded to Qatar in 2013? It has been around for a while and dominating the delivery service market here ever since! Talabat was founded in Kuwait back in 2004, and it has earned many milestones since its expansion throughout the MENA region. Not to mention, shortly afterward, Delivery Hero officially acquired them in 2016!

With the growing demand for deliveries today, there’s so much to learn from Talabat’s journey and values. Our team went on a mission and interviewed the Managing Director at Talabat Qatar, Mr. Francisco Miguel de Sousa.

 

First of all, congratulations on your success. You are undoubtedly the most popular delivery service in the market!

 1. To begin with, what’s the story behind the name? Why Talabat?

“Born and raised in MENA, Talabat was created in 2004 in Kuwait. As you may know, Talabat means ‘order’ – and while we do not have the exact origins behind the name, it’s safe to assume that our founders wanted the word to become synonymous with food-delivery in the region!”

 

2. Thanks to the current situation, delivery bikes are everywhere at the moment. We see parked cars and scooters more than ever! How do you ensure your drivers are safe?

“Let me start by saying that safety is our number one priority. We’ve consistently been the first in the region to introduce enhanced safety solutions for our riders, including the things we now take for granted – gloves, masks, sanitiser as well as contactless delivery.

We also continue to place a keen emphasis on developing new practices. We’ve enabled a flexi-break feature, which means that whenever our riders need time to refresh, they can take it. Our algorithms in our app also map out the safest and quickest way to a customer’s location – meaning that they can also focus on the road, not needing to think about which ways to get there.”

 

3. There are so many different brands popping up now. How would you differentiate Talabat from the other delivery services? Does the competition bother you too much?

“As the leader in the Qatari market, we are proud to be an example for so many new e-commerce platforms. It challenges us to deliver more value to our customers and our restaurant partners, and to continue to provide excellence in service.

Our team also thrives on competition. We are agile, young and fast-moving, and we make sure that we’re always ahead of the curve and constantly improving.”

 

4. Would you say you are the biggest winner of the pandemic at least in terms of business? What is the average traffic in a day at Talabat?

“When we have millions of people suffering from the pandemic, there are no winners, at all.

As the leading organisation, we have a huge responsibility to our ecosystem (our partners, riders, customers, colleagues, government and the communities in which we operate), to ensure that we are making lives easier and more accessible, and being part of a solution, in the current pandemic.

We have continued to provide a lifeline for many businesses, who otherwise would have had no way to deliver throughout the pandemic, and have also changed our payment structure to make it more flexible for businesses to help ensure business continuity.

For our customers, our riders have been true frontline heroes, helping people to stay safe and at home, while still fulfilling orders safely and swiftly, especially during the lockdowns – which gradually ensures case numbers come down.

When it comes to caring for our communities – a project close to our hearts was our collaboration with Qatar Charity, Ali bin Ali and Qatar Airways, to donate three cargo flights to Lebanon and one to Sudan after the unfortunate events that occurred last year. We have strong ties with local charities such as Qatar Charity, as well as Education Above All, Qatar Red Crescent, Qatar Cancer Society and other NGOs.”

 

5. Home delivery has existed for the past 20 years. What has changed in the last year that it’s all over the place now?

“Previously food delivery has been an add-on to people dining out, and ordering groceries online was an add-on to people shopping at the supermarket.

However, the pandemic has necessitated that life be reshaped. Things that we used to take as a right, are now a privilege. Seeing friends and family and dining out in a safe location – that is currently a privilege. The same can be said about your humble supermarket shop.

Personally, I miss dining out at my favourite local restaurants. While we continue to raise the bar here at Talabat, and our food delivery is a great experience, I’ve been a restauranteur ever since I was five years old in Portugal. I miss the noise, the bustle, the feeling of a full restaurant, the atmosphere. I love it.

With more vaccines, we are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, and I for one cannot wait for it!”

 

 6. You’ve spoken about the fact that you personally miss dining out at restaurants. How do you see the situation after our lockdown?

“As a leading player in the restaurant industry and to provide support to restaurants in Qatar, we are right behind the safe reopening of dine-in.

To enable restaurants to continue to attract new and returning customers, we have released Talabat Dine (tDine), (which can be found on our app) which rewards customers for dining out at restaurants through great savings and perks.

As soon as the restrictions on restaurants are lifted, tDine members will happily benefit from all these special offers while enjoying the unique experience of dining in at restaurants.”

 

7. Where do you eat? What’s your favorite item to order and from where?

” I usually eat with my family comfortably at home. I enjoy eating local food as much as possible. My favourite dish is majboos, done in the Qatari way. Few restaurants cook it for several hours in an amazing way so we can deliciously savour it.”

 

8. As with every owner, the dream is to see the growth of their enterprise. What do you have in mind for Talabat? Where do you see the brand in the next 5 years?

“We’re in a fast growing and a fast moving industry, and it’s up to us to continue to be the pioneers and pace-setters in the MENA region. Every day we focus more on the customers. Win hearts and minds. If you win the hearts and minds of your customers, then your business will continue to flourish. If we look at Talabat as a business and its future:

Food delivery will always be our core business, and it is important that we keep on innovating in that space for our ecosystem.

We’re continuing to focus our efforts on Q-Commerce so increasing Talabat mart and dark stores into our other markets, investing in AI, data analytics and machine learning to operate predictive models. That’s a very important point as we are first and foremost a tech company, we have the biggest tech team in the region, working to improve our services.

In the near future, we expect to push Made in Qatar products to every single Middle Eastern Country. Ambitious? We have also exported the very first Food & Beverage made in Qatar brands to Kuwait. The first one has started.”

 

It was a pleasure to interview you and we definitely gained a lot of insights about Talabat. Thank you so much for giving us your time, and we hope that things work out beautifully for Talabat and we wish you all the best!

 

 

By: Christle