Delivereasy is marking its 10th year in business expecting to process 4 million orders - and says it's hard work being up against global giant Uber.The New Zealand-based delivery service has faced its own allegations of "David and Goliath" behaviour because it charges businesses a higher commission if they work with more than one delivery service.But co-founder and chief executive Tim Robinson said it had its own challenges as a New Zealand player in a market with global competition.Delivereasy first launched in Wellington in 2016 and then moved into the regions, starting with Dunedin, Palmerston North, and Invercargill.It now operates across 53 cities and towns in New Zealand, with roughly one in five of the country's hospitality operators.Delivereasy calculated it had processed more than 15 million orders. It had increased from 50 vendors in 2016 to 4186 now, and 4 million orders annually up from 5842 in its first year.Robinson said the idea for Delivereasy came from a friend who had just come back from the UK, where Deliveroo was a big operator. "He'd come back and seen the magic of things that weren't pizza being delivered to people's homes. In 2016 when we started, it was pre-Uber, there was no one really doing it here, we built a platform out of Wellington."It was to start with probably quite embarrassing, two Malaysian restaurants, a pizza joint and maybe two curry shops… it was fascinating to watch it grow. We were bootstrapped, we had no funding. We had like $2000 between us so I just had a few Facebook ads up and did some social posts and it started going."He said the arrival of Uber had helped because it created awareness of delivery options, and demand for them. "People really opened their eyes to the convenience of it. Then 2020 was when Covid came and that was a crazy time, the business tripled overnight. People really tried it for the first time. From there on, it's been a massive thing."Growth had since slowed and competing against Uber was not always easy, he said. "We're a New Zealand business, we've got about 3500 drivers and we pay tax here, it's just a crazy dynamic where they're probably six or seven times our size and over the last four years we've probably paid twice the income tax they have. It's a frustrating one… it's a big challenge."He said Delivereasy was now expanding into other deliveries, such as groceries and pharmacy deliveries, as well as retail and alcohol. "There's a little bit of retail creeping in there which is a big trend in the States. If you look overseas everyone can deliver in under 90 minutes and that's probably just clicking on in New Zealand now."Robinson said it might take people time to change their habits but once expectations changed, they would stick. "I've got two young kids and I'm pretty disorganised… I think as soon as I had two young kids I'm like nothing makes my entire household happier than two Happy Meals turning up on the doorstep. It's fixed a lot of problems for us."He said recent years had been a long, tough struggle for hospitality generally and Delivereasy had not been immune from that. "I've probably never lived through such a prolonged downturn for an economy."But the takeaway sector was growing, and up 3.2 percent over the past year.Sign up for Money with Susan Edmunds, a weekly newsletter covering all the things that affect how we make, spend and invest money.