Restaurant tech war simmers as Grab joins Foodpanda, others to launch dine-in services

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Can dining out generate millions in revenue? Well, long before Grab’s foray into the dining space, there was another company that believed there were huge profits to be made if one made “dining out” effortless.

That company was Diner’s Club. It started out in 1950 as the world’s first independent card firm, issuing travel and entertainment credit cards to make life easier for businessmen.

Unsurprisingly, Diners Club founder Frank McNamara came up with the idea while he was dining out. As the story goes, he was entertaining his clients when he realized he’d left his wallet at home.

To his embarrassment, his wife had to pay for the bill. But that actually spurred him to come up with the idea of a multipurpose charge card. Today, Diners Club earns more than US$150 million in revenue and is a unit of NYSE-listed Discover Financial Services (DFS, NYSE).

Decades after McNamara conceptualized Diner’s Club, the basic premise of his idea is still so sound that Grab (GRAB, NDAQ) is betting on users getting hooked on its new “dine-in” feature, which is designed to give them an end-to-end restaurant experience. Do check out my colleague Melissa’s take on the super app’s latest offering in this week’s Big Story.

— Rachel

THE BIG STORY

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Can Grab’s dine-in services reverse a fall in food delivery growth
It joins food delivery platforms including Foodpanda, Swiggy, and Zomato, which have moved into the adjacent category in recent years.

3 Trends to keep an eye on

Hot stocks, earnings reports, restructuring, pressure from activist investors, and more.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

1️⃣ Alibaba to expand in Europe: Alibaba (BABA, NYSE) will make the continent its top priority as it aims to build local businesses outside China.

2 Eye-popping facts

The one you didn’t see coming