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Comment by vikramkr | Hacker News Reader

I read an article with some details from the Uber side on why that deal fell through. I never thought I'd read an article where Uber seemed to be on the ethical right side of things...

"Uber also believed it would would need to stop several undesirable business practices from Grubhub, including phone charges and cybersquatting, or buying domain names with the intent to profit from them. Grubhub has denied cybersquatting in the past. "

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/10/uber-exasperated-with-grubhu...

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Aah thuisbezorgd/takeaway does squad domains so grubhub will fit right in.

You got a source for that or some other reading material? Never witnessed it myself so just curious.

Definitely seen in the German market Takeaway buying tonnes of domains.

I think this is an example: https://www.afhaalrestaurantpikantochicken-rotterdam.nl/

Its a place that's on thuisbezorgd but has no own website. Just this shady ridiculously long URL that is an exact copy of the thuisbezorgd page, with a thuisbezorgd banner on it.

If we do a whois on the URL, the registrar is TAKEAWAY.COM (so thuisbezorgd) who happens to have 90,237 more domains: https://whois.domaintools.com/afhaalrestaurantpikantochicken....

They do? I didn't know that.

I only know them from their Dutch branch Thuisbezorgd, which seems fairly decent, and has contracts with connected restaurants. Quite recently they've been under attack for abusing their near-monopoly (they do have Deliveroo and Uber Eats as competitors, as well many independent restaurants; many connected restaurants also have their own site) by raising their margins, putting pressure on restaurants.

GrubHub sounds like the worst of the worst, so I was quite surprised to learn they were bought by Thuisbezorgd's parent.

I only got anecdotal evidence. Sometimes i just google the name of a restaurant i want to order.

Most of the times the results are:

- ad: order X on thuisbezorgd

- google widget about X

- 1) squated domain with thuisbezorgd order page for X

- 2) real domain of restaurant X

I think this is an example: https://www.afhaalrestaurantpikantochicken-rotterdam.nl/

Its a place that's on thuisbezorgd but has no own website. Just this shady ridiculously long URL that is an exact copy of the thuisbezorgd page, with a thuisbezorgd banner on it.

If we do a whois on the URL, the registrar is TAKEAWAY.COM (so thuisbezorgd) who happens to have 90,237 more domains: https://whois.domaintools.com/afhaalrestaurantpikantochicken....

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