Dive Brief:
- Facebook added an “Order Food” icon to the menu area of its desktop and mobile applications that shows nearby restaurants based on the user’s location, TechCrunch reported. Delivery.com, the online delivery service for more than 10,000 local businesses and local pizza app Slice handle the new ordering feature.
- The feature builds on an agreement between Facebook and the two food services to let users place orders with supported restaurants directly from their Facebook page via a “Start Order” button. After clicking the button, users are shown a list of restaurants similar to traditional food ordering sites, complete with photos, price range, star ratings and type of cuisine.
- After users pay for the order, a confirmation screen indicates that they'll receive an email with the estimated delivery or pickup time.
Dive Insight:
Facebook’s test of food ordering seems to be off to a rocky start, working in some areas and not yet in others, per TechCrunch. It’s unclear whether location services need to be turned on for the mobile app to function properly or whether some other setting prevents a list of the restaurants to show on the desktop app.
Facebook clearly wants to keep its users inside its app as much as possible instead of losing them to third-party delivery applications like GrubHub, DoorDash, UberEats, Yelp Eat24 or Amazon Prime Now. Adding the “Order Food” button also saves the time of having to look up a restaurant’s individual site to see whether it takes online orders.
Facebook has introduced several features this year to improve the functionality of its app, including a professional network section called “discover people” that resembles some of LinkedIn’s capabilities. Facebook also added weather updates, a travel section called “city guides,” local government information under “town hall,” an online jobs board, fundraisers and instant games, according to TechCrunch.
