In late 2018, Tapingo, the food-ordering app known campuswide, was purchased by Grubhub for $150 million in an attempt to become more college-friendly and expand the online ordering and delivery systems of restaurants on NC State’s campus. Upon entering the new school year, students were encouraged to start using Grubhub.
According to a 2018 press release by Grubhub, Tapingo has provided services for roughly 150 colleges, including NC State, since 2012. In its duration on campus, the food-ordering service exceeded expectations for the amount of users of the app.
This year, while former users still have access to the app, new users are redirected to the Grubhub app when trying to download the Tapingo app on their mobile phones. This is a direct result of Grubhub’s multimillion-dollar acquisition of Tapingo in the final months of 2018.
The senior manager of corporate communications at Grubhub, Katie Norris, and Grubhub spokesperson Yera Ha explained in a joint email why the change was made.
According to Norris and Ha, the acquisition resulted in greater customer convenience and a more efficient dining experience. Now, according to Norris and Ha, NC State is one of over 200 college campuses to implement Grubhub Campus Dining.
“Through Grubhub Campus Dining, we’re able to make students’ lives easier, allow merchants to efficiently capitalize on online ordering and enable colleges and universities to give students the technology they’ve come to expect,” Norris and Ha said over email.
However, while Grubhub is the only option for first-year students downloading the app for the first time, other students still use Tapingo due to convenience.
“I’ll just stay with Tapingo,” said Ben Cox, a second-year studying mechanical engineering. “It’s already on my phone. I just want to keep it how it is.”
Others, such as Mason King, a second-year studying polymer and color chemistry, switched from Tapingo to Grubhub due to misinformation. King felt obligated to make the switch in order to continue ordering food online.
“I switched to Grubhub because it wasn’t clear on whether or not Tapingo was going to get phased out,” King said.
Though Tapingo isn’t going anywhere for existing users, Norris and Ha’s email urged students to consider making the jump. They said it will provide a better experience for users.
“Ordering through Grubhub lets students order ahead from their favorite restaurants on and off campus, get real-time updates, pick up their orders on the way to class, and pay with their meal plan, bank or campus cards … students are likely to save money by ordering through Grubhub versus other delivery apps,” Norris and Ha stated.
Norris and Ha also stated students who sign up for emails from Grubhub will receive special promo codes and have access to offers and deals by restaurant partners of Grubhub.
