The days of playing broken telephone with restaurants, and waiting for your meal to arrive at the right address on a wing and a prayer, are fading fast as online ordering takes off. And the battle for market share is hotting up between South Africa's two largest services, Mr D Food and UberEATS. At Mr D Food, previously known as Mr Delivery, online orders have soared to 95% of total orders for the year ending June 2017, compared with 20% last year. Its app has been downloaded more than 200 000 times in the past six months. UberEATS, which launched in South Africa in September last year, had its app downloaded 100 000 times in its first six months of operation here. Devin Sinclair, head of Mr D Food, said part of its appeal was its cash-on-delivery payment option. "For the South African consumer, being able to buy cash is still a huge drawcard ... We consider ourselves in a race against UberEATS, but first our focus is doing what we do well and delivering an excellent customer servic...
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