Middle East Delivery Leader Talabat: 2024 Net Profit Up 64%, Unfazed by Meituan and Other New Entrants

This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on March 7, 2025.

For operators and platform-watchers in MENA, Talabat's 2024 results and its response to incoming Chinese competition offer a clear read on how a regional incumbent defends a high-margin delivery market.

2024 results (per the company's unaudited figures)

• GMV: USD 7.4 billion, up 23% — a record.
• Revenue: USD 3.0 billion, up 32%, ahead of expectations, driven by more customers, higher order frequency and fast-growing grocery/retail delivery. Mix: commissions USD 1.062 billion; subscription and other USD 952 million; delivery and service fees USD 696 million; advertising and platform placement USD 246 million.
• Adjusted EBITDA: USD 497 million, up 55%; EBITDA margin 6.7% of GMV.
• Net profit: USD 346 million, up 64%; net margin 4.7% of GMV.
• Adjusted free cash flow: USD 462 million, up 54%; period-end cash USD 419 million; net cash USD 322 million.
• 2025 guidance (as given): GMV growth of 17–18% and net margin rising to 5.0–5.5%.

The competitive threat from Meituan

Per a Morgan Stanley note cited in the article, Meituan's Keeta entered Saudi Arabia in October 2024 and quickly took about 10% order share, with projected GCC GMV of USD 6–8 billion by 2028. The challenge: scale and capital (plans to spend USD 600M–1 billion a year in the Middle East on marketing and rider subsidies; a target of 20–27% GCC share by 2028); technology and operations (smart dispatch enabling 30–40 minute delivery versus a local 40–60 minute average, and profitability at low ticket sizes); and a Saudi-first strategy (Saudi is more than half of GCC delivery GMV).

How Talabat says it will respond

On its 2024 earnings call, management projected confidence backed by data and operating actions:

1. Entrenched leadership: GMV of USD 7.4 billion across MENA, with an outright lead in core markets (UAE, Kuwait) and a scale advantage over the number-two player in every operating country. 2. Hard-to-copy ecosystem: Talabat Pro (free delivery, exclusive discounts, dine-in perks) raised member order frequency by about 28%; member numbers more than doubled in 2024. Co-branded credit cards, post-pay and loyalty points deepen stickiness. 3. Commercial leverage: merchants spent close to USD 500 million on promotions on the platform in 2024 — unusually high — because of Talabat's user base, technology and personalized marketing, which lowers Talabat's own marketing cost and lets it respond without large incremental spend. 4. Multi-category expansion: grocery and retail grew 47% in 2024 to about 25% of GMV; with online grocery penetration in the region only about 1%, Talabat is scaling its own dark stores (T-mart) alongside local-merchant partnerships. 5. A single, market-agnostic playbook: a consistent operating strategy across Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar, Doha and Kuwait rather than reacting to any one rival — with over 120,000 riders and about 65,000 merchants in 2024. 6. Personalization tech: a Q4 2024 app overhaul with a more advanced recommendation engine raised member-conversion by 24% and grocery conversion by over 2%. 7. Financial strength: year-end cash above USD 400 million with no debt, and a commitment to distribute at least USD 400 million in dividends in 2025.

The stated philosophy: don't underestimate the challenge, don't overreact; the market is large enough for multiple players, and stickiness plus ecosystem beat short-term price wars.

Company background and the IPO

Founded in 2004 in Kuwait (the name means "orders" in Arabic), Talabat pioneered online ordering when only about 30% of Kuwaitis were online. It was acquired by Rocket Internet for USD 170 million in 2015 — then one of the region's largest startup exits — and folded into what became Delivery Hero, after which it expanded across Bahrain, the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and beyond. In February 2025 it acquired grocery e-commerce platform InstaShop from Delivery Hero (kept as a standalone brand), pushing 2024 grocery/retail GMV above USD 2.5 billion.

Talabat listed on the Dubai Financial Market on December 10, 2024 (ticker "TALABAT") — the exchange's first tech IPO, the largest global tech IPO of 2024 and the largest Gulf IPO, at a market value of about USD 10.1 billion (about AED 37.3 billion). The deal was a secondary sale by Delivery Hero, which retained control; strong demand lifted the offer from 15% to 20% of shares, raising about USD 2 billion (about AED 7.5 billion). Anchors included global long-only and tech funds; UAE institutions (e.g., the Emirates Strategic Investment Fund and an Abu Dhabi pension fund) subscribed about AED 918 million, roughly 12% of the deal. Delivery Hero's stake fell from 100% to about 80%, with a commitment to retain a majority for a period; independent and local board members were added.

Financials, operations and market position

• Financial profile (from the prospectus): revenue of AED 5.073 billion (2022) and AED 6.163 billion (2023, up about 21.5%); 9M 2024 GMV of AED 19.83 billion, up 21%; take rate (revenue/GMV) of roughly 20–30%. Gross margin rose from about 36.4% (2022) to 37.5% (2023). Operating profit grew from AED 825 million (2022) to AED 1.094 billion (2023, about +33%); net profit from AED 769 million to AED 1.084 billion (about +41%), a 17.6% net margin. 2023 adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow were each about AED 1.3 billion (over 90% cash conversion). The UAE introduced a 9% corporate tax in 2023 (2023 income-tax expense only about AED 7.7 million).
• Operating strategy: deepen existing markets rather than chase new countries (8 countries; reachable population about 185 million; monthly orders per person only about 0.42). Five growth pillars: product/market presence, fintech and loyalty, ad monetization, new categories, and strategic M&A. Cloud-first with AWS cut feature-deployment cycles from 15 days to 2; a regional first was an AI grocery assistant that recommends ingredients from a recipe. A Dubai Tech Hub employs 480+ specialists.
• Logistics and riders: 119,000+ active riders via a mix of third-party and freelance models (e.g., a freelance program in Egypt), with rider insurance, instant e-wallet payouts, walking-courier programs and targets to raise the share of women riders.
• Market position: UAE share about 76%; number one across Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman; peak of about 1 million orders/day in 2023; over 6 million monthly active users by September 2024. Per third-party data, the Gulf online food-delivery market was about USD 3 billion in 2022 and is projected above USD 9 billion by 2028 (about a 19% CAGR).
• Competitive landscape: Deliveroo (premium, mainly UAE), Careem Now (super-app cross-sell, smaller scale), and Noon Food (e-commerce-backed, early stage). In Saudi Arabia, Delivery Hero competes via HungerStation and Jahez rather than the Talabat brand; Jahez (listed 2022) has expanded into Bahrain and Kuwait.

Outlook and risks (as stated in the source, March 2025)

Talabat positioned itself for continued double-digit growth on low penetration, with optionality in fintech, retail media, new categories and M&A. The article flagged risks operators should weigh: renewed competition (including potential moves by global players), rider relations and possible strikes (a 2022 precedent), macro and FX pressure in markets such as Egypt, and public-company governance and share-price volatility. Forward guidance and competitive dynamics here are from early 2025 and have since evolved.