Ghost kitchens are restaurants that sell food through delivery only, do not have a physical dining space for customers, and do not offer pick-up services. They are also known as dark kitchens, cloud kitchens, and virtual restaurants, with customers able to place orders through food delivery apps, websites, or over the phone. This market has been enabled by the rise of technology and mobile food delivery apps, especially during the
when most restaurants were forced to stop indoor dining and rely solely on takeaway and delivery sales. As of August 2022, one of the
was the ghost kitchen restaurant chain MrBeast Burger, which earned an annual revenue of 100 million U.S dollars.
Ghost kitchens and online restaurant delivery services
Since ghost kitchens do not have a physical dining space, many partner with mobile food delivery apps, such as
Deliveroo, DoorDash, or Uber Eats, to sell their menu items all over the world. DoorDash was the
leading online meal delivery company in the U.S. as of January 2024, with a market share of over 60 percent. In the United Kingdom, Deliveroo, which is owned by parent company Roo Foods Limited, ranked second as one of the
most used online UK providers of food delivery in 2023. Deliveroo began working with ghost kitchens in 2017 with the launch of their Deliveroo Editions program, allowing virtual restaurants to launch without the risk and start-up cost involved in opening a physical dining space. The success of these companies is demonstrated by their revenue streams. In 2022, the
global revenue of Uber Eats amounted to nearly 11 billion U.S. dollars.
The future of ghost kitchens and the online food delivery market
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a 100 percent decrease in
seated restaurant diners worldwide. Social distancing measures left many restaurants unable to serve food to customers directly from their locations, and many of those restaurants were forced to embrace online food delivery to stay afloat. Fortunately, prior to COVID-19, the online food delivery market had already experienced significant growth, and this trend is ongoing. As of 2023, the
online food delivery market revenue was estimated at over one trillion U.S. dollars and that figure is forecast to reach over 1.6 trillion by 2027. In 2030, ghost kitchens are predicted to hold a 50 percent
market share of the drive-thru and takeaway foodservice markets, respectively.
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