Typing out your order on Mrsool is only the start of what’s made the Saudi delivery app more popular in the kingdom than Uber Technologies Inc. and Facebook Inc.
The experience that follows recreates the bargaining of a traditional market. Once the customer picks out items from a store or restaurant, couriers bid to run the errand, offering a delivery price within a certain range, which shoppers can reject if they find the quotes too expensive. The back-and-forth can continue as the courier buys and delivers the order, chatting and sharing photographs or voice notes.
“People like to conduct business by conversing with others,” said Abdulrahman Tarabzouni, chief executive officer of STV, a $500 million venture capital fund anchored by Saudi Telecom that recently took part in Mrsool’s first funding round.