Uber to start testing drones for food delivery

“McDonald’s is on a delivery journey – and we’re building on the extraordinary growth of our delivery business over the last five years,” shared a statement from the QSR chain as it announced partnership with Uber and DoorDash to expand its delivery across globe.

In 2017, just 3,000 McDonald’s restaurants offered delivery. Now, delivery is available in more than 32,000 restaurants across 100 different countries. Delivery has become an integral part of the brand’s business around the globe.

“To meet customer demand, we aim to work with partners who can make the delivery experience seamless for our customers and restaurants. Our partnerships with these providers are mutually beneficial – the massive size and scale of McDonald's provides partners with unique advantages, including an iconic brand, unmatched proximity to customers around the world, leading customer acquisition, demand throughout the day, operational excellence and world-class marketing expertise,” it added.

McDonald’s and Uber are announcing a new, long-term global strategic partnership, evolving their existing agreement and providing McDonald’s customers and franchisees with the convenience and value of McDelivery® in markets across the world.

Similarly, McDonald’s and DoorDash have agreed to a new, long-term global strategic partnership, evolving their existing agreement and providing McDonald’s customers and franchisees with the convenience and value of McDelivery® in markets across the world. McDonald’s and DoorDash’s partnership will support growth to the McDelivery business and advance both companies’ commitment to innovation.

“We’re grateful for our partners who help us make it possible for millions of customers around the world to get their favorite McDonald’s orders where and when they want them. The momentum has been impressive, and we’re excited to continue to innovate to make the delivery experience even better,” added the statement.

The QSR chain also mentioned that their work with DoorDash and Uber Eats will help them improve operations, unlock speed, value and accuracy, benefiting franchisees and most importantly – providing convenient, feel-good experiences no matter how their customers choose McDonald’s.

Delivery is a significant component of McDonald’s Accelerating the Arches growth strategy to drive the business forward while providing a fast, easy experience for customers. Since the launch of McDelivery five years ago, McDonald’s delivery footprint has grown from 3,000 restaurants to more than 32,000 restaurants across 100 countries through partnerships with both local and global platforms.

Uber Technologies Inc. has acquired Drizly, an e-commerce alcohol delivery brand for $1.1 billion.

This is one of the biggest deal of Uber since July when it bought food delivery app Postmates.

Also Read; Uber acquires American food delivery player Postmates for $2.65 billion

The Drizly purchase primarily consists of Uber stock, with less than 10% in cash, shared a statement from Uber. With this acquisition, Uber shares climbed about 7% on Tuesday.

Before finalizing the deal with Uber, Drizly was also in talks with DoorDash and GoPuff in the US.

"Wherever you want to go and whatever you need to get, our goal at Uber is to make people's lives a little bit easier. That's why we've been branching into new categories like groceries, prescriptions and, now, alcohol," shared Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber in a statement by adding that introducing Drizly into the Uber family they can accelerate that trajectory by exposing Drizly to the Uber audience and expanding its geographic presence into our global footprint in the years ahead.

Drizly operates in more than 1400 cities in the US delivering customers their favourite wine, beer and other liquors from local stores.

May Interest: Zomato acquires Uber’s food delivery business in India

"We are thrilled to join a world-class Uber team whose platform will accelerate Drizly on its mission to be there when it matters — committed to life's moments and the people who create them,’ added Cory Rellas, Co-founder and CEO, Drizly.

Uber said it expects 90 percent of the transaction, which remains subject to regulatory approval, will be in shares with the remainder in cash.

flying taxis. Uber shifted resources to delivery services, and in the third quarter, delivery sales increased 125%.

Uber is planning to acquire food delivery service Postmates in a $2.65 billion all-stock deal after its offer to buy Grubhub ended due to antitrust scrutiny.

Postmates app will continue to run separately after the acquisition, but it’ll be able to tap into a merchant and delivery network combined with Uber Eats, shared a reported Bloomberg.

With this acquisition, customers will have more restaurant options for consumers and more efficient deliveries for drivers who pick up multiple orders at a time.

As per reports the deal is expected to close in early 2021.

Uber Eats has seen an acceleration in demand since mid-March, with 89 percent year-over-year gross bookings growth in April excluding India. And the company is also abandoning its unprofitable markets at a steady clip. Uber recently shuttered its Eats business in eight cities, reports says.

Postmates is located in San Francisco. As of February 2019, Postmates operates in 2,940 U.S. cities. The service relies on mobile phone applications and their Global Positioning System capabilities to match inventories and consumer demand.

Travis Kalanick, Co-Founder of Uber, is likely to pick up a minority stake in homegrown, multi-brand cloud kitchen player Rebel Foods, previously known as Faasos.

Kalanick will make the investment in Rebel Foods through its real estate company City Storage Systems, which he took over after he was ousted as the CEO of the ride-hailing major in 2017.

Founded by Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee, Rebel Foods is operating multiple quick-service food brands independently, facilitating deliveries through its app or through the likes of Zomato and Swiggy. The Pune-based company has nine in-house brands including Faasos, Oven Story, Firangi Bake, Behrouz Biryani, and Mandarin Oak.

A person aware of the matter said, “It’s a small cheque from Kalanick, which is part of the $125-million financing round for Rebel.”

Rebel Foods has more than 175 cloud kitchens across 12 cities in India. It claims to receive almost 30K orders a day. 

Last month, the company had raised $125 million led by US-based hedge fund Coatue Management. It has also received investment from Indonesia’s Go-Jek, one of the biggest startups in Southeast Asia, through its investment arm Go Ventures.

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Bengaluru-based Swiggy is in talks to acquire Uber Eats India, the food-delivery arm of global ride-hailing firm Uber. The transaction is expected to be a share-swap deal, with Uber taking shares in the buyers for the agreed-upon valuation. 

A source familiar with the development said, "Swiggy is currently leading the discussions but Zomato is in contention as well."

Currently, UberEats' India business is doing 150,000 to 250,000 deliveries a day with a gross sales run-rate of $200-250 million. However, both Ola and Zomato do four-five times more deliveries than UberEats.

This acquisition is seen as a strategy for Uber to reduce losses on a global level as it prepares for a possible public offering. Uber posted a loss of $1.8 billion for 2018.

In December, Swiggy had raised $1 billion in one of the biggest single financing round in the Indian food-tech industry.

Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc is in early talks to acquire Deliveroo, the London-based food delivery app. The value of the deal is not disclosed until now. Any offer would need to be considerably above its latest valuation.

Last year, the food delivery company was valued at over $2 billion after raising $98 million from private investors.

If the deal goes through, it would mark a major attempt by Uber to dominate the food-delivery business in Europe.

Incorporated in London in 2013, Deliveroo competes with companies such as Just Eat. Presently, it operates in more than 200 cities across four continents.

Despite the cab-hailing app Uber saw its losses widening year-on-year in the June 2018 quarter, it is still deliberately investing in products like Uber Eats and Pool as well as high-potential markets in Middle East and India. Uber's June 2018 quarter net revenue was $2.7 billion while gross bookings were $12 billion.

India and Middle East markets present long-term growth opportunities for Uber's rides as well as Eats businesses given the large, growing urban population. Having a $6 billion run rate, Uber Eats business is growing 200% per year.

Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO, said, "Going forward, we're deliberately investing in the future of our platform: big bets like Uber Eats; congestion and environmentally friendly modes of transport like Express Pool, e-bikes and scooters; emerging businesses like Freight; and high-potential markets in the Middle East and India where we are cementing our leadership position".

Uber Eats, the online food serving app launched by Uber in May last year, is experiencing a nearly 50 percent month-on-month (MoM) growth in its first year of operations in India.

The number of orders in the last three months has more than doubled, the company said in a statement.

“Uber Eats has gained great momentum in India and is one of its fastest growing markets in the Asia Pacific region. We look forward to accelerating this growth further on and India has huge opportunities to offer,” said Bhavik Rathod, Head of Uber Eats, India.

Uber Eats is focused on expanding its footprint to additional Tier 2 markets in the coming month, the statement added.

It has grown its presence in India by expanding to 13 cities and adding more than 40 restaurants daily onto its platform.

A food ordering and delivery app, Uber Eats has been launched in Kolkata enabling the gourmet to order food from 250 favourite eating joints on the click of a button. Kolkata is the 11th city in the country to get this facility.

One will have to download the app, view the eating places of his choice and place the order, Bhavik Rathod, head of 'Uber Eats' India, the US-headquartered company's popular food delivery service said.

"With Kolkatans' favourite eating joints - restaurants, sweet shops, confectioners' outlets, fast food joints, coffee shops - on board with Uber Eats, we promise customers quick and reliable delivery so that they can enjoy their favourite food at the comfort of their homes," Rathod added.

Uber Eats app has also made available the schedule a meal option. "If you want to have your dinner at 10, you can schedule it an hour or even a week ahead," Rathod said.

The app also offers customised drop-off within a certain radius. "Say you are in a park and you want your meal delivered at your home, you can just feed in the drop-off address and it will reach there," he said. Some of the other features include tailored restaurant recommendations, where machine learning is used to suggest the customer's favourite eatery or a dish ordered often. There will be a filter for the right food such as vegetarian or quick bites.

After delivery, the user can rate the restaurant and also each item. "We will roll out a restaurant manager app soon and feed it with real-time data such as consumer feedback on meals," Rathod went on adding.

In Mumbai, Uber Eats entered the Indian market in May 2017 and is now present in 11 cities, including Delhi, Gurugram, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Jaipur. Worldwide, Uber Eats is in over 200 cities across 37 countries with over 12,000 restaurant partners. Uber Eats hopes to cash in on the Indian market, which according to Rathod is still nascent.

In a bid to expand the reach of its food delivery app, Uber has planned to launch "Uber Eats" in Jaipur and Kochi later this month.

With these additions, the service will be available in 10 Indian cities and would launch with over 500 restaurants, the company said in a statement.

Bhavik Rathod, Head of Uber Eats India said, "We are all set to hit a milestone of 10 cities in 10 months. Jaipur and Kochi are known for their rich culinary delights and we are excited to make food ordering quick, easy and reliable here."

In India, Uber Eats was launched in India in May 2017 with Mumbai as the first city. Since then the company has opened its stores in Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.

Uber Eats presently has a network of over 7,000 restaurants across all the cities.

Started in 2014 as a small delivery pilot in Los Angeles Uber Eats has also launched as a separate application in Toronto in December 2015. It is now available in over 30 countries and 200-plus cities.

UberEats, an on-demand food delivery enters Pune bringing over 300 restaurant partners on board across key neighbourhoods in the city such as Vimannagar, Kalyaninagar, Koregaon Park and Sangamwadi.

“Our aim is to help Puneites discover great food for their everyday practical eating needs through our restaurant partners and the Uber delivery network," says Bhavik Rathod, UberEats India Head.

A city with a strong Parsi influence in cuisine, restaurants on UberEats will offer a variety of options, from fast food choices such as pizzas, burgers and pav bhaji, to sweet treats like Bhakarwadi, Modaks, Ircustards and Shrewsbury biscuits.

Started in Los Angeles in 2014 as a small delivery pilot UberEats was launched as a separate application in Toronto in December 2015. Since then, it has grown incredibly fast, and is now a standalone app available in 29 countries and in 130 cities around the globe.

In India, UberEats has its presence in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Chennai, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and now in Pune.

Uber, the taxi-hailing service is launching a food delivery service, UberEats, in India. Though the company has not announced the date of the launch, but according to them users would be able to order food from restaurants and get it delivered after downloading the standalone app.

The service was first launched as an in-app feature in the US in 2014. It has since then grown to around 58 cities in the world, including South East Asian cities like Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Taipei.

According to Uber, which announced plans to invest $1 billion in India in 2015, India launch would be a major step in its regional expansion.

Uber is preparing to launch UberEats, its standalone food delivery app, in 10 US cities, reported The Wall Street Journal's Doug Macmillan.

Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Austin are among the cities Uber is bringing its food delivery service to, said a company spokesperson.

The first standalone app from the company since the launch of the general Uber app, UberEats will be live in the Apple App Store and the Google Play store by the end of March.

Uber has been testing the food-delivery service inside of its main app for the better part of the past 18 months, but it then launched as a standalone app available in Toronto, reported Wired.

Uber launched UberEats in Los Angeles in 2014 and has since expanded those services to New York City, Toronto, Austin, Chicago and Barcelona.

Uber partners with a couple restaurants each day to offer meals to its customers, which the company delivers via courier within just a few minutes.

Just like when you're waiting for your Uber to roll up, you can track your food's progress on your Smartphone as it travels to you. Drivers can choose whether they want to be an UberEats driver and they receive the ~$5 delivery fee from each UberEats order they deliver.

Yum CEO Greg Creed thinks he figured out why sales at Pizza Hut have gone cold: The chain needs to be more like the car-hailing service Uber, reported AP.

``If you think about the Uber experience, it's easy to use, it's easy to pay, it's very easy to track,'' Creed said in a phone interview from Dallas late Thursday after Yum Brands' investor day.

During a presentation, Creed said there was a time when the way to beat the competition was to have a better product. He now believes that convenience trumps quality, and that ``nothing beats making better easy.''

Creed said the insight that ``easy'' beats ``better'' will help Yum energize its three fast-food chains, which also include KFC and Taco Bell. That means everything from shaving time off drive-through waits to pushing into areas like catering, delivery and mobile ordering.

With Pizza Hut in particular, Creed said the chain hasn't paid as much attention to making life easier for customers as it focused on being ``better.'' Yum notes the chain's sales have flagged even as Pizza Hut is often cited as a favorite among consumers. It turns out people who prefer the chain's pizzas are only willing to wait about two minutes more for it, Creed said. Yet Pizza Hut takes more than two minutes longer to deliver than its competitors.

It's one of the reasons Yum thinks Pizza Hut has flagged in the U.S. as rivals have prospered. In recent years, Domino's has credited the convenience of its online ordering and mobile app for fueling its steady growth. Last year, its sales rose 7.5 percent at established U.S. locations, following growth of 5.4 percent the previous year.

In the meantime, Pizza Hut's sales fell 3 percent at established locations last year, following a 2 percent drop in 2013.

To get the chain back on track, Creed said he made Pizza Hut's management team get in a room about a month ago to come up with a ``clear brand identity.'' They were told not to come out until they did.

``One of the joys of being the boss, you can lock other people away,'' said Creed, who stepped into the CEO role this year.

Nine hours later, Creed said he got a text from Pizza Hut's chief brand officer Jeff Fox asking for permission to leave the room _ they thought they had an answer. That's when they came up with the insight that ``easy'' beats ``better.''

In addition to Uber, executives cited online retailer Amazon as an example of how being easy for customers wins business. Creed noted that the insight doesn't mean the company is giving up on being better as well.

It's not yet clear exactly how Pizza Hut plans to act on its new mantra. As part of its menu revamp late last year, the chain also redesigned its website. Creed assured investors Thursday the company had a plan in store, but that he couldn't share details yet for competitive reasons.

ZO Rooms, Uber and foodpanda have come together to provide a seamless and unmatched travel experience to its customers.

ZO Rooms, a chain of premium budget hotels, Uber, the cab service provider and foodpanda, the online restaurant delivery platform, has partnered together to bring a comfy experience to their customers.

Zo Rooms offers comfortable and reliable rooms across 13 cities with 150+ properties to choose from. The brand has been built to cater to the needs and tastes of the modern travellers, such as – free breakfast, good Wi-Fi etc.

Karun Arya, Communications Lead, South Asia and India, Uber, said, "Uber is all about providing seamless experiences at the push of a button. We are excited to partner with ZO Rooms and now Foodpanda to provide travellers unparalleled convenience on-the-go. Booking a comfortable room, getting their conveniently and ordering something delicious to eat has never been easier. Advanced smart technology is ensuring we complete the travel loop: Stay. Eat. Ride."

The motto of ZO is – guests aren’t customers, they are friends. ZO’s tech-fluency is also something that sets them apart from the rest. When you book via the ZO Rooms app, on check-in, you will receive 100 per cent ZO cashback. This is like getting a free stay!

Uber comes on board to provide you with comfy rides, across all major cities of the country. Uber is the cheapest AC ride in town.

The customers can download the Uber app, press a button and a comfortable ride will arrive at their location. Once you check-in into your ZO Room, you will receive a free ride up to Rs 500.

And, foodpanda- India's largest food ordering platform will not only connect the travellers with all over 12,000 restaurants nationally and delicious local joints of the city but also make sure the food is delivered to your room’s doorstep. At the time of check-in you will get up to 50 per cent off coupons.

“This is a strategic collaboration for us as the three have come together only to ensure that travelers have an amazing and relaxing experience, when away from home. As the service industry is continuously converging their focus towards rigorous customer experience, with this move the trio we're addressing a traveler’s primary concerns, i.e. stay, travel and food,” shared Saurabh Kochhar, MD, foodpanda.

This is a significant collaboration as the three have come together only to make sure that travellers have an amazing experience, when away from home. As the service industry’s focus is continuously moving towards rigorous customer experience, with this move the trio have covered a traveller’s planning concerns, i.e. stay, travel and food. All that will be left now is to actually concentrate on the City.

Abhishek Shivhare, Director, Strategic Partnerships, ZO Rooms, added, "With our brand Zostel, the focus has always been on customer experience and now we are trying to replicate that same wow factor with ZO Rooms. We are extremely excited about this three way strategic collaboration as it has all the ingredients to ensure that customers have a delightful time when they travel. Technology is ensuring that travelers can now Stay, eat and ride at a click of a button"

To avail the ‘must-not-miss’ opportunity download the ZO Rooms app and use coupon code ZOTRAVEL.