What's our real take rate after promo and incentive spend?
№ 033 · Net take rate after subsidies
Definition
MetricNet take rate: revenue minus promotions, consumer incentives and partner incentives, as % of GMV
Unit% of GMV
Same as gross but after subsidy outflows. If gross take rises but net stays flat, you are funding growth with incentives. Build by subtracting all incentive payouts (free shipping, credits, promo discounts) from gross revenue, then dividing by GMV. Example: gross 11.8%, subsidies 1.4% of GMV, net 10.4%.
- GMV
- Gross merchandise value. Total value of goods sold through the platform before returns, discounts and take rate.
Benchmarks
| Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|
| net take less than half of gross take, or incentives as % of GMV rising YoY without matching cohort quality gains | incentives around 10% of GMV for competitive on-demand categories (Grab: 10.1-10.4% of on-demand GMV, 2024-2025); food delivery blended net take 13-14% against 15-30% list commissions | net take within 2-3 points of gross take, with incentives held near or below 10% of GMV at on-demand scale and falling as markets mature |
on-demand and consumer marketplaces, 2024-2026; the only granular public incentive disclosures are SEA on-demand (Grab), so the median is anchored to that model and competitive intensity · Very few companies disclose incentives as % of GMV, so cross-sectional data is thin; the Grab series is the cleanest public benchmark. Accounting treatment matters: partner incentives netted from revenue vs consumer incentives in marketing produce different net-take optics for the same cash outlay.
Category split omitted: Only one company (Grab) publishes incentives as % of GMV at category granularity; a single source cannot support a category split.
When it looks bad
The gap between the gross take line and the net take line widens every quarter, and net take dips toward zero in months with growth pushes, meaning growth is being bought at full subsidy.
Gross take 15%, incentives climb from 6% to 11% of GMV in two quarters; net take falls 9% to 4% while GMV grows 25%.
What to do about it
- Publish an internal incentives-as-%-of-GMV ceiling per market and hold it in the monthly review, mirroring the Grab discipline of keeping the metric within tens of basis points YoY even while growing GMV 20%+.
- Shift subsidy burden to the side that benefits: supplier-funded off-peak discounts in exchange for placement, and merchant-funded promos, which move spend out of the platform's net take entirely.
- Measure every incentive program on incremental net revenue per subsidy dollar with holdout groups; kill programs below 1.0x within two cycles.
- Sequence market maturity pricing: reduce incentives in cohorts older than 12 months first, where habit is formed and elasticity is lowest, before touching launch markets.
Sources
- Grab Holdings on-demand incentives 10.4% of GMV in Q4 2025 (10.1% Q4 2024), split $ partner vs consumer; total incentives $585-650M per quarter at group level s205.q4cdn.com ↗
- Grab Holdings incentives flat QoQ at 10.1% of on-demand GMV while driver supply hit record highs; discipline maintained through competitive pressure grab.com ↗
- PulseRevOps blended food delivery net take approx 13-14% after subsidies, promos and grocery mix vs published 15-30% tiers, flat to slightly down for three years pulserevops.com ↗
- Tidemark Capital net take rates require removing pass-through revenue; comparisons on gross take mislead tidemarkcap.com ↗
- Mostly Metrics (CJ Gustafson) public marketplace comps show effective take diverging from list fees; add-ons raise it, subsidies lower it mostlymetrics.com ↗
- Everything Marketplaces (Marketplace Capital) investor lens values net revenue, not GMV; subsidy-inflated GMV converts poorly everythingmarketplaces.com ↗