Who Benefits from Food Delivery Platforms? The Heterogeneous Effects of Platforms on Restaurant Sales

We quantify the heterogeneous impact of food delivery platforms on sales amounts at the restaurant level, using novel credit card transaction data from 2020 that cover the entire universe of Korean restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our instrumental-variable regression demonstrates the use of platforms increases a restaurantʼs monthly sales revenue by approximately 1,545 USD. Furthermore, we demonstrate the impact is particularly large on small restaurants. The bottom-decile restaurants experience a 97.6% increase in total sales revenue from platforms. Our findings show that small firms̶not just ʻsuperstarʼ firms̶can be the main beneficiaries of technological advancements, depending on industry characteristics.