Claiming that food delivery apps are purely rent extraction I engaged in an argument with a friend about whether takeaway food ordering apps had any 'value'. I tried to persuade him that they were rent extraction enterprises but he wasn't convinced. So I want two things here. Firstly what the weak points of my argument are and secondly how I can articulate my points better. 

My position was that apps are being used to provide marginal benefits to consumers who then use them at great expense to the restaurants that actually prepare the food. However, if those that benefit from the app (hungry consumers) had to shoulder the cost incurred rather than the restaurant, they would choose not to use the app. By this I mean if the money paid by the restaurant to the app firm was added as a surcharge to the customer bill, they would pick up the phone instead of using the app. Therefore because those who enjoy the limited benefits of the app would not be willing to pay to service the app, the app has no value and is a rent seeking enterprise by a tech firm to extract money from takeaway restaurants.
at great expense to the restaurants that actually prepare the food


Your premise seems to be that the restaurants are somehow losing out.

The key though is that (if done right) all three parties (the app company, the restaurant, and the consumer) should benefit. The reason is that through economies of scale (delivering for multiple restaurants) and perhaps other factors, the app company is able to organize and execute the delivery at a lower cost than the restaurant would be able to.

One piece of evidence that all three parties benefit is that all three parties continue to use this arrangement.



Note that with certain countries and certain apps, the delivery app companies are actually losing money. Venture capitalists throw money at them hoping they'll end up as the "winner-takes-all".

Rarely though is it the case that the consumer or the restaurant loses from this arrangement. A consumer who finds this a losing proposition can quite easily stop doing business with the app. Likewise with any restaurant.