Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 801

The frenetic run-up to Christmas has come to an end, and I'm looking forward to relaxing and taking it easy with family and friends. I hope that all of you are able to do the same, however you spend the holidays. This is the one time of the year when the email firehose completely shuts off and it's a lot easier to do exactly that. I think that's important for all of us.

This past year I found it particularly difficult to disconnect. And 2020 is on deck to be an even bigger year. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I am, however, going to take this time to slow down, read, write, travel, and likely drink a bunch of wine. As always, you'll find me here on the blog every morning. Merry Christmas, everyone.

P.S. The Toronto Raptors are hosting their first ever Christmas Day game .

In 2017, the US restaurant industry generated about $560 billion in annual revenue. By comparison, the movie industry generates some $30 billion a year. Food, and eating out, is a big business.

A recent paper by Joel Waldgogel of the University of Minnesota has tried to estimate the "implicit cuisine trade" associated with this industry. To do this, he used restaurant data from TripAdvisor and sales figures from Euromonitor.

Domestic consumption of a foreign cuisine was considered an "import." And foreign consumption of a domestic cuisine was considered an "export." Here's what he discovered (graph from the Economist ):

Italy is, by far, the biggest net "exporter." And the US is the biggest net "importer." If you exclude fast food, the US "deficit" balloons to approximately $140 billion.

I guess everybody does really love Italian food. For the full paper, click here .

Last week, SHARE NOW -- which was previously known as Car2Go -- announced that it will be exiting the North American market entirely come February 29, 2020, and that it will also cease operations in London, Brussels, and Florence. A couple of reasons were cited , including the "volatile state of the global mobility landscape," but that really translates into low adoption:

Further, despite our best efforts and investments in Brussels, London and Florence over the years, we are unable to continue operations in a manner that’s sustainable for our business due to low adoption rates.

Moving forward, SHARE NOW will focus on the remaining 18 European cities. We, along with our shareholders, believe these markets show the clearest potential for profitable growth and mobility innovation.

There was a period of time when I used to use Car2Go here in Toronto. My network did as well. But that quickly stopped with the rise of Uber and Lyft. I mean, why bother finding a Car2Go and then parking it, when there's a much lower friction option? I would imagine that's how most people feel. (Maybe there's a care share advantage for longer trips.)

At the same time, companies such as Uber and Lyft have, as you know, not performed well as public companies. The market is nervous about their path to profitability. In my view, they're largely an undifferentiated offering right now, and it's pretty easy to switch across them. So yeah, I guess the global mobility landscape is pretty volatile.