Food delivery apps have grown a bunch over the last couple of years as everything moves to be done from home. That caused food chains to try getting ahead as well, giving away free food for downloads.
A fair trade as far as I'm concerned, but most of them couldn't really turn crazy campaigns into sustained downloads.
And then we have McDonald's...
I rounded up the most popular food apps in the US and compared their downloads in 2020, the year where they were all experimenting, to 2021, the year where they all should have had a solid strategy for.
Of the 10 apps I looked at, half actually shrunk!
Pizza Hut, Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, Burger King, and Subway all saw downloads decrease in 2021 compared to 2020. Pizza Hut suffered only a tiny bit, losing about 4% of downloads. But Subway saw a decrease of more than 32%. That's not great.
McDonald's, Panera Bread, Wendy's, Domino's Pizza, and Taco Bell all saw increases, ranging from 5% on the low end to as much as 23% on the high end.
But while percentages are great to show differences, they only tell half of this story.
Not only was McDonald's the app with the most growth year-over-year, it was also the app with the most download, and by far. McDonald's ended 2021 with 18M estimated downloads. The closest app, in terms of downloads, was Chick-fil-A. It added 9M estimated downloads, half of what McDonald's added.
As we inch closer to summer, the time when most of these apps spring into action, I expect we'll see more of the same. A not great strategy that will allow McDonald's to continue distancing itself from the pack.
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