Should Google Maps enter into all aspects of restaurant business/domain (beyond just search)

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Should Google Maps enter into all aspects of restaurant business/domain (beyond just search)

Asked at Google over a year ago

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Eli Marcus · Answer 1 · 2020-09-09T17:02:55+0000

Should Google Maps enter into all aspects of restaurant business/domain (beyond just search)

Clarifying Questions

1. Is there any specific goal behind this question – revenue, user engagement, quelling competition? I’ll assume the answer is open ended, but I will try to bring these ideas back into my answer.

2. You talk about google maps – however google maps already goes into google my business, which contains facts, reviews, connection to meal delivery services, buys times, etc. Should I think of google more holistically and maps as a gateway? Yes

3. All aspects of the restaurant business domain? What do you mean

a. Opening and managing restaurants

b. Restaurant supply

c. Or is this isolated to digital services (reviews, meal delivery, reservations and any other digital services I come up with while working the questions)

You’re the PM

Company and product

Google mission is to organize the worlds information and make it accessible and useful. To that end maps as related to restaurants organizes the worlds list of restaurants and lets the user know where they are located and how to get to those locations. Users can find restaurants not just by name search but by general searches such as Chinese food near me, best Chinese food etc. The maps solution is part of a larger holistic solution offered by Google that ties into Google my Business. Google my business is part of local search and contains information about the business including

1. Reviews – existing

2. Hours - existing

3. Basic info- existing

4. Maybe you can see a menu

5. Links to meal delivery business - existing

6. Maybe you can reserve already though Google

7. Google also offers opportunity to pay for meals at restaurants though Google pay

Ideas

1. Google should open and manage restaurants

2. Google should offer restaurant management software

3. Google should open and manage restaurant supply

4. Google should offer restaurant supply software

5. Google should allow you to see menus

6. Google should allow you to make reservations

7. Google should open and manage delivery services

Evaluate the ideas

Idea

Opportunity

Effort

Company Fit

Competition

Recommendation

Google should open and manage restaurants

The restaurant industry is multi billion dollar. However, it is notorious for low margins and high failure rate.

Low

Restaurants require individual locations each with its own cost structure.

High

Google’s mission is about information – restaurants are about service.

Low

Competition is fierce.

High

Google should not open and manage restaurants

Google should offer restaurant management software

The restaurant industry is multi billion dollar. It is notorious for low margins. To the extent that google offered solutions like AI and algorithms to help maximize yield there may be an opportunity.

Medium

Google is an expert at offering software solutions and could like offer exciting new tech beyond what is available today.

Low

Managing the data of restaurants is about useful and accessible information. But google is also about the next billion users. While there are millions of restaurants world wide not all would adopt.

Medium

Many larger restaurants already have kiosks where they enter orders, manage tables, etc. and smaller restaurants to this by hand.

Medium to High

Maybe Google could look at some Google sheets solutions and tie in apps to help manage restaurants.

Soft maybe

Google should open and manage restaurant supply

This is essentially the same analysis as opening restaurants. No

Google should offer restaurant supply management software

This is essentially the same analysis as restaurant management software.

Soft Maybe

Google should allow you to see menus – likely already a feature

Creates a holistic experience for Google my business.

High

Google organizes the worlds information

Low

Google organizes the world information and menus are part of that.

High

Open Table, Yelp and other services already offer this. So while coemption exists – their actions show us this is a required feature.

High

Yes – if Google isn’t already doing this they should

Google should allow you to make reservations

This is the same analysis as menus. If they don’t already they should.

Google should open and manage delivery services

In the covid world it is clear that meal delivery is here to stay.

High

Delivery requires having a large pool of employees or contractors. These contractors as part of the gig economy are currently in flux of being labled employees or contractors.

High

While connecting users to deliverers is all about the organization of information. The management and recruitment of a large pool of drivers to do the physical work isn’t.

Low

Uber eats, Instacart, door dash, and others are all in the business delivery. The competition is high.

High

Google should likely stay out of the delivery end of the equation and focus on bringing users and move information.

Summary

Generally Google is already well down the path of wrapping the restaurant experience with digital experiences. This is the area that google should focus on. Today we see Google in the area of restaurant facts, reviews, hours, busy time, links to delivery services and if there is missing digital information (menus, reservations) then Google should certainly move into that. While not evaluated Google should look at other digital services that wrap the restaurant experience, popular dishes, helping users pick an item – again any information-based services is a likely. We also need to look a competition like open table and yelp that both start with t premise that you are looking for a restaurant and work from that side towards maps. Google maps starts with maps and then moves to information. To be competitive Google should offer a complete set of digital solutions.

In addition Google may want to look at software that wraps the restaurant industry. While larger restaurants have kiosk based systems smaller restaurants may be open to a touch screen based web solution from Google. The system would be designed to manage tables, orders which would tie into recommendations on which dishes are selling and how to optimize the business. This could tie into order management systems where Google might tie into suppliers and collect a commission when orders are placed electronically. The area has some appeal because of the insights gained into consumer behavior and the tie into order management. However it’s unclear if the opportunity cost will match the market potential – not the next billion users. Worth evaluation – but in a world of limited resources this is a soft maybe and it’s likely other ideas would win out.

Finally google should stay out of the physical management of restaurants or restaurant supplies. The competition is fierce – the margins are thin and while google has expertise in information management – it is unclear that this will translate into running restaurants.