Dive Brief:

• GoPapaya, a mobile app that provides discounts to more than 85 restaurants in the Boston area, added a feature to provide discounts of up to 40% off takeout orders. The company got its start by trying to help restaurateurs fill their empty tables by offering last-minute discounts to diners, according to a statement by the company. 
• GoPapaya, founded last year by a former director of engineering at storage giant EMC, Marik Marshak, helps diners decide where to eat by presenting personalized real-time offers from nearby restaurants during off-peak times or when they have openings. 
• Takeout diners reserve an offer and arrive within 30-45 minutes to pick it up without having to prepay for the food. The app can be downloaded on the Apple App and Google Play stores. 

Dive Insight:

GoPapaya resembles Groupon, Priceline’s OpenTable and other services by offering discounts for restaurants, although GoPapaya works with a greater sense of immediacy. Adding a takeout feature matches the times as people shun restaurant dining rooms and test out third-party delivery apps like DoorDash or UberEats. By bringing the convenience of mobile ordering and pairing it with the immediacy of last-minute deals and nearby searches, GoPapaya points to how mobile still has the potential to disrupt established business segments like local restaurants. 

Customers who use online food delivery platforms show a high affinity for using them again, according to a study by McKinsey. The consulting firm found that once customers sign up with a service, 80% never leave for another service. That creates a strong winner-take-all dynamic in the industry, with the reward going to the company that can sign up the most customers earliest.

Delivery and takeout services are important components of driving growth. Nation's Restaurant News cites market research from the NPD Group that says about two-thirds of all restaurant visits last year were for to-go orders as consumers avoided dining in. The number of people dining at casual restaurants declined 4% in 2016, while off-premise visits rose 1% to 920 million in total, NPD found. That means restaurants need to remove friction in their mobile apps and consider how to make takeout ordering simpler and faster for customers.