Robert Galati, at his Italian restaurant Fratelli & Co in Concord, Sydney, says he has lost 16 per cent off his bottom line to MenuLog. Credit:James Brickwood For restaurants it can be a double-edged sword: an increase in sales but at a price. Robert Galati, who owns Sydney-based Italian restaurant Fratelli & Co and Thai restaurant Baywok, uses both Eat Now and Menulog. He says that although the ease of using these companies is great for his customers, the benefits for the business owner do not outweigh the 16 per cent off his bottom line. The aggregators bring new business online that he wouldn't otherwise have, increasing his volume of orders, spreading his delivery area and increasing his turnover, he said. But he describes Menulog as being the business partner he never wanted because it is also taking existing customers that were already his and as well as taking a fee.

Uber Eats and other online takeaway giants are increasingly popular with consumers. Credit:Akio Kon "Customers that were coming into my restaurant or were ordering directly from my website or over the phone are now going through Menulog because of convenience, and customers that were 100 per cent mine are now going through these other avenues and they're taking a cut, indirectly losing money that was already mine," he said. A spokeswoman for Foodora said the traditional restaurant model had changed dramatically. "The Foodora delivery model is designed to open up a new marketplace to restaurants, giving the opportunity of delivery to those who may not have had access to it before," she said. Aggregators are essentially taking any profit a business owner makes from their delivery service. Customers can order takeaway food online either directly through the restaurants' own platforms, such as the Dominos delivery service, or through an online aggregator. The customer then pays the aggregator a delivery fee, usually around $5, taking this cost away from the business.

"Having these companies take a slice of your bottom line didn't exist five years ago and now they have become a 10-15 per cent shareholder in your takeaway bottom line," Mr Galati said. He also said they take 16 per cent inclusive of commissions, EFTPOS fees and GST. However, customers are allocating an increasing share of their wallet to "eating out" and "delivered food" as people are becoming increasingly time-poor. In the report, Morgan Stanley estimates the online takeaway food market to be $1.5 billion of the wider $18 billion takeaway food market. Online penetration of takeaway food is forecast to reach 23 per cent in Australia by 2025 compared to the current 10 per cent.

Uber Eats is available to 47 per cent of the population and is expected to approach 60 per cent over the long term. Uber Eats general manager Matt Denman argues the aggregator model puts more control in the hands of restaurants and business owners, giving them an holistic view over their data. "They have access to insights about their service quality, customer satisfaction, and sales alongside access to the tools to make specific adjustments to improve their business," he said. Levi Aron, country manager of Deliveroo, said: "Our technology and its algorithms drive greater efficiency in the kitchen and give restaurant owners deeper insight into what's popular, expected order quantities and peak order periods."

Although Mr Galati sees food aggregators as more of a disadvantage than advantage, he realises the industry has grown so rapidly that it has become essential to work with them. "I think that if I was to take my restaurant offline from Menulog, I risk losing that market they've taken. I think taking Menulog away could prove to be a very costly error," he said. Aggregators have been in Australia for over 10 years, since Menulog delivered their first meal in 2006. The industry has since expanded to a more than $600 million market which is expected to expand to $2.4 billion in 2025. This year will see further expansion of the online takeaway food industry with Uber Eats' Mr Denman saying the company is working with businesses to help them establish virtual restaurants on the Uber Eats platform. These digital-only restaurants will allow business owners to create another source of revenue and allow savvy restaurateurs to test out new cuisines.