MapmyIndia, Foodpanda weigh cost of battling Goliath

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Hello reader,

When you find yourself in a tussle with a Goliath, it’s a high-risk, high-reward situation.

Sure, if you can put his eye out with your slingshot, people will still know your name thousands of years later. But if you can’t take down the giant, you’re going to get squished.

MapmyIndia (MAPMYINDIA, NSE) is taking on one of the biggest giants it could hope to encounter: Google (GOOGL, Nasdaq). The Indian firm provides digital maps, geospatial software, and location-based IoT tech, all of which looks set to put it on a collision course with Google Maps for market share.

While MapmyIndia is confident that it has what it takes to outperform the Goliath in its sector, it seems like the same can’t be said for Foodpanda.

The Asian food delivery platform is owned by Delivery Hero (DHER, FWB) and the German firm is a Goliath in its own right. While it wouldn’t be fair to liken Foodpanda to David, it certainly has a smaller share of Southeast Asia’s food delivery market compared to Grab (GRAB, Nasdaq).

It seems in the case of Foodpanda and Grab, the whale is about to swallow the relative minnow, as Foodpanda has been slashing its workforce and could soon be acquired by Grab.

— Peter

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Image credit: Timmy Loen

MapmyIndia’s shares outperform Indian tech peers, but battle with Google looms
MapmyIndia is hoping to win the country’s US$8 billion market for digital maps and location-based services.

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