The instant househelp segment is burning through cash at a faster clip once again, with Urban Company, Snabbit and Pronto ramping up discounts in May after temporarily pulling back incentives in April amid a labour shortage.
The combined monthly cash burn across the three players rose 25% month-on-month to $14-15 million in May, according to multiple industry executives. This was around $10-12 million in April.
The higher spending, however, does not seem to have helped accelerate demand. Total orders rose to around 3.2-3.3 million in May from 2.9-3.1 million in April, executives said.
Urban Company's InstaHelp service processed roughly 1.2-1.3 million orders during the month, while Snabbit handled 1.1-1.2 million orders. Pronto recorded around 800,000-810,000 orders.
