The Popular Pizza Chain That Innovated Online Food Delivery In The 1990s

While there are some situations where you may want to think twice before ordering food online, there's comfort in convenience. Busy modern lifestyles can make ordering pizza digitally even more of a savior for last-minute meals. Online food delivery owes a lot to one particular pizza chain restaurant that paved the way for the minimal-fuss ordering process we all know and use today. Pizza Hut is the fast food chain to thank for bringing online pizza delivery into reality.

While Pizza Hut is a classic OG chain where at least one location is untouched by time, it isn't afraid to be trailblazing. In 1994 (11 years after the internet's official birthday), the brand set up PizzaNet — a system to order your favorite pizza without having to head to the restaurant or call over the phone. PizzaNet served as a webpage on the pizzeria's website, which made it possible to order your pie and toppings without leaving the house. But how exactly did it work? 

It began with the PizzaNet webpage on a browser named Mosaic. After every order, Pizza Hut staff called and confirmed each order to deter fake orders and wasting precious time (and pizza). The order was then delivered, and the customer paid with cash when it arrived. The very first pizza ordered via PizzaNet was a pie with pepperoni, mushrooms, and extra cheese, according to a press release on PR Newswire. The pizzeria also claims its pizza was the first item to have ever been ordered on the internet, but that's up for debate. Still, more than 30 years later, ordering pizza virtually seems like the greatest gift.

The online delivery game has come a long way, and Pizza Hut has a lot to do with inspiring sophistication in the process. While the PizzaNet delivery system was first launched in Santa Cruz, California, it wasn't pushed nationally until interest picked up. These days, it's a norm all over the world and over half of the company's sales come from online orders. The international franchise took pizza pioneering seriously, and in 2003, created a way for customers to place their order online a week in advance. A few years later in 2007, the chain was the first national pizza spot to launch a Facebook page, bringing pizza into the early stages of social media. The technological innovations kept coming in the noughties — in 2009, Pizza Hut launched a mobile app for users, which was a new concept at the time with only a handful of apps existing.

The platform's commitment to pushing tech to its limits for the sake of a convenient pizza experience was noted. In fact, the idea of ordering pizza online made its way into popular culture references. The same PizzaNet concept was featured in the 1995 movie, "The Net," featuring Sandra Bullock. The future of ordering online is vast with the advancement of AI and drones calculating drive-thru wait times, bringing even more possibilities for seamless pizza ordering (hopefully without the complete disasters we've seen at AI fast food drive thrus).