Local Aspects of Digital Competition: Evidence from a Meal Delivery Platform in Germany

Abstract

We study competition in the ready-to-eat meal delivery market in Germany, a sector characterized by digital platforms, while the competition is tightly local. We investigate how competition intensity varies spatially and with socioeconomic factors and how competition intensity maps into prices. To address these questions, we combine standardized product, price, and vendor-level data scraped from Just Eat Germany (lieferando.de) with socioeconomic characteristics on the postal code level. We find that higher competition intensity in the relevant delivery market is associated with lower meal prices but higher beverage prices, suggesting differentiated pricing strategies across product categories. Regions characterized by stronger overall competition experience greater price pressure. Despite substantially higher purchasing power in West Germany, average price levels are comparable between East and West. This seems to result from more pronounced competition-induced price reductions in West Germany.

Keywords: Competition, Platform, Pricing-Strategies, Local Socioeconomic Factors JEL classification: D40, Local Competition