欧洲市场的外卖公司之争

Business

商业

The gig-economy -- How can we be heroes?

零工经济——我们怎么会是超人呢？

The European market is a tough terrain for food delivery firms.

对食品外卖公司来说，欧洲是个艰难的市场。

Delivery Hero has had a good run in the past couple of years.

Delivery Hero在过去的几年里经营得很好。

In August 2020 it ascended to the Dax, the stockmarket index of Germany’s most valuable listed firms. It is present in 50 countries on four continents.

2020年8月，它上升进入德国Dax指数，这是德国最有价值的上市公司的股票市场指数。

Revenue for the third quarter was 1.8bn euros ($2bn), a jump of 89% compared with the same period in 2020.

它的业务遍布四个大洲的50个国家。第三季度营收为18亿欧元(合20亿美元)，与2020年同期相比增长了89%。

“We grew 100% before Corona, 100% during Corona and we will grow 100% after Corona,” says Niklas Ostberg, the Berlin-based firm’s Swedish chief executive.

“我们在新冠之前增长了100%，在新冠期间增长了100%，在新冠之后我们还将增长100%，”这家总部位于柏林的公司的瑞典首席执行官尼克拉斯·奥斯伯格说。

By number of orders Delivery Hero is more than twice as big as DoorDash, its large American rival.

按订单数量计算，Delivery Hero是其大型美国竞争对手DoorDash的两倍多。

Even so, DoorDash’s market capitalisation is $58bn, more than that of Delivery Hero ($31bn) and Just Eat Takeaway.com ($13bn), the two big European food-delivery firms, combined.

即便如此，DoorDash的市值仍高达580亿美元，超过了欧洲两大送餐公司Delivery Hero(310亿美元)和Just Eat Takeaway.com(130亿美元)的市值总和。

European shares tend in general to underperform American ones.

总体而言，欧洲股票的表现往往不如美国股票。

But another reason for investors’ caution is more specific to food delivery.

但投资者持谨慎态度的另一个原因更加具体，即食品配送。

Strict labour laws, a tradition of union organising, pricey unskilled workers and stingy customers, who buy little and tip rarely, make Europe the toughest of all continents for the business.

严格的劳动法、工会组织的传统、昂贵的非技术工人和吝啬的顾客（他们很少买东西，也很少给小费），这些使欧洲成为所有大洲中对这门生意来说最艰难的一个。

Mr Ostberg says that high labour costs have become less of a problem in Europe, because the efficiency of delivery has improved substantially in recent years.

奥斯特伯格表示，在欧洲，高昂的劳动力成本已不是什么大问题，因为近年来送货效率已大幅提高。

European consumers have also grown less parsimonious amid the pandemic boom in online shopping of all kinds.

在新冠疫情期间各种网购兴起，欧洲消费者也变得不那么吝啬了。

As a consequence, Delivery Hero has reversed its decision to leave the German market altogether, by offloading its domestic businesses, Foodora, Lieferheld and Pizza.de, to Takeaway.com (a Dutch firm that subsequently merged with Just Eat) in order to focus on fast-growing Asia.

因此，Delivery Hero改变了彻底放弃德国市场的决定，而是将其国内业务Foodora、Lieferheld和Pizzaa.de出售给Takeaway.com(一家荷兰公司，后来与Just Eat合并)，以专注于快速增长的亚洲市场。

In the summer it launched a new app, Foodpanda, in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich.

今年夏天，该公司在柏林、法兰克福、汉堡和慕尼黑推出了一款名为Foodpanda的新应用。

When it comes to other labour matters, however, things may be about to get tougher still.

然而，当涉及到其他劳工问题时，情况可能仍会变得更加艰难。

If a draft proposal in the works in the European Union (EU) becomes law, as many as 4m gig workers delivering meals or ferrying ride-hailers could be reclassified as employees.

如果欧盟(EU)正在起草的一项提案草案成为法律，多达400万送餐或开网约车的零工可能会被重新归类为雇员。

This would entitle them to a minimum wage, sick leave and paid leave, unemployment benefits, health- and long-term-care coverage, and pension-insurance contributions.

这将使他们有权享有最低工资、病假和带薪休假、失业救济金、医疗和长期护理保险以及养老保险费。

The EU estimates that the reclassification could cost gig-economy firms around 4.5bn euros a year.

欧盟估计，这种重新归类可能会让零工经济公司每年花费约45亿欧元。

Like his counterparts in the business, Mr Ostberg insists that many of his riders choose to be freelancers because that lets them work as much as they want, whenever they want.

与他的业内同行一样，奥斯特伯格先生坚称，公司的许多骑手是自己选择成为自由职业者的，因为这样他们就可以想工作多长时间就工作多长时间。

“More or less anyone can work for us at any time of the day,” he says.

“时间可长可短，任何人都可以在一天中的任何时候为我们工作，”他说。

But such arguments are increasingly cutting less mustard.

但是这样的理由越来越不能令人满意。

In February Britain’s highest court ordered Uber (which runs both food-delivery and ride-hailing apps) to reclassify its drivers in London as employees.

二月份，英国最高法院命令优步（同时经营送餐和叫车应用）将其在伦敦的司机重新归类为雇员。

Delivery Hero’s share price fell by nearly 3% on December 3rd following reports of the draft EU proposal.

12月3日，在欧盟提案草案公布后，Delivery Hero的股价下跌了近3%。

Such developments help explain why couriers are getting more assertive.

这些进展有助于解释为什么配送员变得越来越无所畏惧。

The riders of Gorillas, a German online grocer with operations across Europe, have clashed with management for months over working conditions and pay.

Gorillas的员工与管理层在工作条件和薪酬问题上的冲突持续了数月，这是一家德国在线杂货商，其业务遍及欧洲。

In October the firm sacked hundreds of riders who had participated in strikes, which further fuelled tensions.

10月份，该公司解雇了数百名参与罢工的骑手，进一步加剧了紧张局势。

In late November a labour court in Germany rejected the management’s attempt to stop Gorillas riders from electing an in-house works council, which they duly did.

11月下旬，德国一家劳工法庭驳回了管理层阻止Gorillas的骑手选举内部劳资委员会的企图，该选举得以如期举行。

The firm’s executives grudgingly had no choice but to say they will work with workers’ representatives.

公司的高管们别无选择，只能不情愿地表示他们将与员工代表合作。

All this is happening as competition in Germany intensifies.

这一切都发生在德国竞争加剧之际。

Delivery Hero will have to invest some 120m euros in German sales and marketing in 2022, reckons Jurgen Kolb of Kepler Cheuvreux, a financial-services firm.

金融服务公司Kepler Cheuvreux的Jurgen Kolb估计，到2022年，Delivery Hero将不得不在德国的市场营销上投资1.2亿欧元。

It is now competing with Lieferando, which dominates the German market (and is owned by Just Eat Takeaway.com), Uber Eats, which launched in April, and Wolt, a Finnish firm recently acquired by DoorDash for 7bn euros.

现在，它的竞争对手有在德国市场占主导地位的Lieferando(隶属于Just Eat Takeaway.com)，今年4月成立的Uber Eats，还有一家最近被DoorDash以70亿欧元收购的芬兰公司Wolt。

Last month DoorDash launched under its own brand in Stuttgart.

上个月DoorDash在斯图加特推出了自己的品牌。

The next few years look poised to be dog-eat-dog in German food delivery.

在接下来的几年里，德国的外卖行业看起来将会是一场你死我活的较量。

Consumers can count on full bellies, courtesy of the gig firms.

消费者可以指望在零工公司的竞争红利下饱腹。

Their shareholders may go hungry.

而它们的股东则可能会挨饿。