Just Eat is using Apple TV to make online food ordering truly collaborative

Once a lone ranger in the online European food delivery realm, Just Eat has a number of well-funded competitors across the continent these days.

But buoyed by its $2.45 billion IPO two years ago, Europe’s answer to GrubHub is alive and kicking in 15 markets across Europe, the Americas, and Oceania, and today the London-based company is lifting the lid on a handful of new initiatives designed to make it easier for families and friends to order food for delivery.

Similar to the aforementioned GrubHub, Just Eat aggregates a bunch of restaurants from across the culinary spectrum and lets users order and pay for food in-app without leaving their sofa. Now Just Eat is rolling out what it’s touting as an “industry-first” group-ordering feature on Apple TV and its first dedicated app for smart TVs.

A family affair

Anyone who has used GrubHub or Just Eat to order food as part of a group will have faced a scenario where they pass a phone or tablet around so everyone can view the menus and make their food selection. With Just Eat’s new Apple TV app, however, anyone on the same Wi-Fi network can sync their iOS device so they can place a combined order from multiple devices.

You may remember GrubHub also launched an Apple TV app last year — though it promises a similar group-ordering experience, it’s more about viewing menus collectively on a big screen rather than facilitating individuals within a group making orders from their own devices.

In addition to its new Apple TV app, Just Eat says it is also committing to the broader TV realm and will be introducing apps for multiple smart TV brands within the next few months. But before that, it will launch an app for Amazon Fire TV, though as you may have guessed this won’t sport the same collaborative ordering features as the Apple TV app — it will just let people see the menu and the basket on the big screen.

“The plans we’ve outlined today are all about ensuring Just Eat delivers a frictionless experience to customers, wherever they are,” said Fernando Fanton, chief product and technology officer at Just Eat. “Working with brands like Apple, Amazon, and others, we want our technology to become a permanent feature in our customers’ living rooms, as well as in our restaurant partners’ offices and kitchens.”

The new product announcements today come as the company vowed to grow its product R&D team, having already pledged to spend around $60 million in marketing and technology in the U.K. alone this year.

As we’ve seen across the technology realm over the past couple of decades, companies that sit still and stop innovating tend to stagnate and are susceptible to being blindsided by younger, more agile startups. By investing in R&D, Just Eat is looking to stop that from happening in what has become an increasingly competitive landscape.