UberEats launches in Cuttack, its second city in Orissa & 45th in India

Uber has joined hands with robotics firm Cartken and Japanese industrial titan Mitsubishi Electric to launch autonomous sidewalk robots to deliver Eats orders in parts of Tokyo starting March.

With this, Japan will become the first international market to have autonomous delivery available on the Uber Eats platform. 

Cartken’s Model C robots will be delivering the food and navigating the sidewalks of Tokyo, and the operations will be supervised by Mitsubishi Electric as part of the partnership.

Cartken’s Model C robots use AI and computer vision technologies to navigate their environments.

According to reports, Uber Eats and Cartken first partnered in parts of Miami in 2022, and expanded robot delivery to Fairfax, Virginia in 2023.

Shoji Tanaka, the senior general manager of the Advanced Application Development Center, Development Division at Mitsubishi Electric said in a statement that robot delivery services “is considered to be an effective countermeasure to the logistics crisis that will become more serious in the future.”

Tanaka also mentioned that Mitsubishi has been working with Cartken to “respond to such social issues.”

“We hope that this newly announced initiative will serve as a catalyst for the spread of robot delivery services in Japan,” he added.

Domino's Pizza Inc, the largest pizza company in the world, has entered into a new global agreement with Uber that allows US customers to order Domino's products through the Uber Eats and Postmates apps with delivery by the trained delivery experts of Domino's and its franchisees.

According to the official release, the initial rollout of the agreement will begin this fall in four pilot markets, with ordering on the Uber Eats and Postmates apps anticipated to be enabled across the country by the end of 2023.

"Domino's has a history of successfully entering new marketplaces. We are the leader in the delivery and carryout pizza marketplaces in the US. In addition, Domino's sells more food on its digital platform than any pizza company in America. Now that aggregators are at scale, the next logical marketplace for us to enter is order aggregation,” shared Russell Weiner, CEO, Domino’s.

This deal could also bring Uber Eats orders to Two-Thirds of Domino's stores around the World.

This unprecedented agreement will also create the opportunity to unify Domino's international markets under a single master agreement that leverages the global scale of both brands. Domino's and Uber Eats currently have 27 international markets in common. This agreement has the potential for incremental orders from Uber Eats to 70% of Domino's stores around the world, including the US.

"Domino's and Uber both have a sustained track record of leadership in technology and innovation. We're excited to announce this unique partnership with Domino's globally—both starting as their exclusive third-party marketplace partner in the US and making their menu available to our consumer base around the world,” added said Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

Domino's international markets that currently do not partner with Uber Eats will begin the assessment process for transitioning this year.

Founded in 1960, Domino's Pizza is the largest pizza company in the world that operate more than 20,000 stores in over 90 markets.
 

Online food ordering and delivery platform Uber Eats on Tuesday shared in an online statement that it is quitting Hong Kong market by the end of 2021.

Launched in 2014 by Uber, it entered Hong Kong market five years ago to catch the fastest growing demand for online food ordering and delivery.

“After five years of partnering with restaurants and delivery people in Hong Kong, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue Uber Eats in Hong Kong on 31 December 2021,” shared the statement by adding that their priority now is to support their employees, restaurant partners, delivery people and consumers in the transition. “We couldn’t have built what we did without their trust and hard work, and we thank them for their support for the platform,” it added as the company do not mentioned any particular reason for its exit.

According to data platform Measurable AI, Uber Eats managed only five percent market share compared with Deliveroo’s 44 percent and Foodpanda’s 51 percent.

“Whilst we wind down our delivery platform operations in Hong Kong, we are more committed than ever to growing our mobility platform in the city, which is home to our largest Uber Taxi business globally. We will keep investing and serve more riders and drivers in coming years by bringing the very best technology to Hong Kong,” it concluded.

Food delivery player Uber Eats is reported to be adding a new pickup map feature to its app that will allow users to search for restaurants or merchants close to them.

The map localises to the user, allowing them to type in what kind of food they are looking for using either words or emojis to see what's nearby, including the exact distance from the user's location, reported TechCrunch.

With this new addition Uber aim to build out Eats that it believes will help it hit its profitability targets. Earlier this week, the company shared that it could hit one measure of profitability in the third quarter, earlier than expected.

As per the brand, the new feature is inspired by feedback from as many as eight out of 10 users who have switched to other map apps to search for nearby food. The map is rolling out globally and should be available now to most users, according to UberEats.

Within the Uber Eats app and the Uber app itself, users will see options to choose Delivery or Pickup at the top. The map is activated when a user selects Pickup specifically. Typing in a burger or pizza emoji should direct the user to nearby burger or pizza joints, which the company says creates increased functionality that is both a time-saver and a fun way to explore local commerce.

Uber Eats says there are 700,000 local restaurants and merchants on its pickup map. The company anticipates an international rise in pickup orders and said it wants to make it easy for customers to quickly visualize their search results.

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.

Starbucks has launched its delivery program to 33 new US markets, in collaboration with UberEats. These new markets include Austin, Baltimore, Charleston, Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, San Antonio, Tampa-St. Pete, and more.

With this expansion, Starbucks now delivers to 49 markets across 29 US states, with plans to expand to nearly every state in the coming months. The brand has rapidly strengthened its delivery program to new US markets since an initial test in Miami less than 18 months ago.

Starbucks said in a press release, “Following continuous success of Starbucks Delivers and further customer demand, the company plans to expand delivery to nearly all U.S. states, achieving national coverage in the coming months.”

Presence of Starbucks delivery program

Apart from the US, Starbucks has unveiled delivery programs in over 15 global markets. These include Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, the UK, and Vietnam.

The company has made several investments to its international delivery initiatives such as voice ordering and delivery capabilities through Alibaba’s delivery platform Ele.me in China and expanding Starbucks Delivers, in partnership with Uber Eats, most recently in the U.K., U.S., and Canada.

Launch of Starbucks Delivers

In late 2018, Starbucks introduced Starbucks Delivers as a pilot in conjunction with Uber Eats. The delivery service is available through the Uber Eats mobile app on iOS and Android devices. It offers about 95% of the core items on the Starbucks menu.

The orders can be followed within the mobile app, tracking progress and location of the Uber courier. The firm has also created packaging to help ensure the quality of hot and cold menu items. 

Customers can also customize orders as they would for orders on Starbucks mobile apps. Delivery orders have varying standard fees depending on factors like customer location and the availability of nearby couriers.

Zomato has bought Uber’s food delivery business, Uber Eats, in India in an all-stock transaction. This move will discontinue Uber Eats’ operations in the country.

With this deal, Uber gets a 9.99% ownership in Zomato. Uber Eats will direct restaurants, delivery partners, and users of its app to the Zomato platform.

The development is targeted at cutting losses at the ride-hailing company’s food delivery business in India that has been a drag on the company’s earnings.

Deepinder Goyal, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zomato, said, “We are proud to have pioneered restaurant discovery and to have created a leading food delivery business across more than 500 cities in India. This acquisition significantly strengthens our position in the category.”

In India, Uber Eats was not doing well and was not meeting its target of being number one or two in the business. The company was losing business by around 20% of its EBIDTA margins and therefore decided to sell the business to Zomato. Uber Eats, however, will remain active in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Dara Khosrowshahi, Chief Executive Officer, Uber, stated, “India remains an exceptionally important market to Uber and we will continue to invest in growing our local Rides business, which is already the clear category leader.”

“Our Uber Eats team in India has achieved an incredible amount over the last two years, and I couldn’t be prouder of their ingenuity and dedication. We have been very impressed by Zomato’s ability to grow rapidly in a capital-efficient manner," Khosrowshahi added.

On recent acquisition of Uber Eats by Zomato, Yagnesh Sanghrajka, Chief Financial Officer at 100X.VC, said, “Uber selling UberEats to Zomato is a sign of consolidation which happens typically to achieve leadership post companies achieving sizeable aggregation. Zomato now has more than 50% share in the food delivery market with this deal. The strength of the delivery network of UberEats will benefit Zomato in growing its market share in South India and hence compete more fiercely with Swiggy nationwide.”

“Startups addressing one major pain point, focusing on it full time to scale and achieve a certain level of critical mass becomes an important milestone and can help turn into a unique selling proposition for a larger player to strike a deal with them to increase its market share and hence create value and future exit opportunities for its investors,” he further stated.

Uber will now continue to focus on building its ride-hailing business in India where it competes with rival Ola.

Uber Eats, the world’s largest food delivery platform, has launched a new marketing campaign #EatsNewEveryday featuring Alia Bhatt and Dulquer Salmaan. The campaign targets youth between the ages of 18 and 25 and addresses their need to seek new experiences while ordering food.

Uber Eats has rapidly increased its footprint in the last couple of years in India by partnering with thousands of restaurants, from local heroes to global best, providing a wide range of choice of cuisines, from Burgers to Biryanis, from Pastas to Parathas, Dimsums to Dosa. Uber Eats is gaining popularity among consumers across 44 cities in India to order food of their choice at the click a button.

The campaign film features Alia Bhatt in her endearing bubbly avatar. Dulquer Salmaan will feature in the film versions made for South India, especially Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Bansi Kotecha, Head of Operations, India & SA, Uber Eats, said, “It gives me immense pleasure to launch our new marketing campaign #EatsNewEveryday featuring Alia Bhatt and Dulquer Salmaan. The campaign aims to create awareness and generate brand love amongst consumers, especially youth who’re looking for convenience and want to maximise their experiences on the platform. We know our consumers love the variety and are very excited to try new cuisines and restaurants. With Uber Eats, we hope to make this easy for them so they can access great food choices every day.”

UberEats recognizes the appetite for food delivery in India and over the last two years, has emerged as the fastest-growing food delivery app. UberEats will continue to focus on technology innovations and empowering people to broaden the horizons of convenience and experience in the food delivery space.

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Burger King has partnered with Uber Eats for delivery across the US.

Consumers can now place a food order from Burger King, including the iconic WHOPPER Sandwich, with the tap of a button on the Uber Eats app.

Chris Finazzo, President, North America, Burger King Corporation, said, “At Burger King restaurants, delivery is a major priority to ensure our food is available to anyone, anywhere. We know our guests value convenience and adding the Burger King brand to Uber Eats is another way we will meet the demands of millions of people on this platform.”

Janelle Sallenave, Head of Uber Eats, US & Canada, added, “We’re thrilled to team up with Burger King restaurants to offer their beloved menu items to Uber Eats customers across the country. A long history of innovation coupled with high-quality delicious food and brilliant marketing makes BK a perfect addition to Uber Eats.”

US-based fast-casual franchise Wayback Burgers has partnered with Uber Eats to offer delivery to burger fans. This partnership comes on the heels of the debut of the brand’s new, revolutionary delivery vehicle.

Recently, Wayback Burgers launched a new electric delivery and an on-site cooking vehicle that delivers food and brings the kitchen to the guest for on-site preparation.

Wayback Burgers is America’s Favorite Hometown Burger Joint and one of the nation’s fastest-growing burger franchises. It is known for gourmet, hand-dipped milkshakes, delicious side items, exciting limited-time-offer menu items and, of course, top-notch burgers.

Patrick Conlin, President of Wayback Burgers, said, “We are excited to be teamed up with Uber Eats. In today’s increasingly technological world, we are proud to offer our guests the convenience of having Wayback Burgers delivered right to their home. And better yet, we are able to offer burger lovers a discount in the month of August as part of this partnership.”

Founded in 1991 in Newark, DE, Wayback Burgers is currently operating in 30 states with more than 160 locations nationally and internationally in Brunei, Sudan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Manitoba, Canada and The Netherlands.

Canadians can now order Starbucks drinks and food to their door in select cities in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. using Uber Eats app. Earlier this summer, Starbucks partnered with Uber Eats to offer delivery service in locations across the country.

The partnership with Uber Eats will allow Starbucks to reach new customers, as well as their existing ones in a new way.

The company said, “Starbucks will leverage Uber’s expertise as a quick and reliable delivery provider that is already well-established in offering customers a premier experience in a growing mobile and on-demand economy.”

Starbucks has also said that customers will receive their beverages and food in unique packaging and beverage solutions to ensure the quality and experience of hot and cold menu items, which will be customizable.”

The coffee chain started partnering with third-party delivery companies in the United States in 2018. Since then, Starbucks has expanded in countries around the world like the United Kingdom, China, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, Mexico and Chile.

Starbucks will expands its partnership with Uber Eats to bring its on-demand delivery service across the United States by early 2020. The American coffee company first partnered with Uber Eats in 2018.

Roz Brewer, Group President and COO, Starbucks, said, “We are driven to create new and unique digital experiences that are meaningful, valuable and convenient for our customers. Partnering with Uber Eats helps us take another step towards bringing Starbucks to customers wherever they are.”

At present, Starbucks delivers through Uber Eats in Miami, Seattle, Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County, Houston and Dallas. 

Jason Droege, VP of UberEverything, stated, “Our customers are huge Starbucks fans and love being able to get their favorite items delivered with Uber Eats speed. We’re excited to expand our partnership across the United States to make ordering their favorite coffee and breakfast sandwich as easy as requesting a ride.”

Prior to the Uber Eats partnership, Starbucks had collaborated with Postmates to deliver food and drinks back in 2015. However, this collaboration never made it out of the launch market in Seattle.

McDonald’s has added DoorDash as a new delivery partner, which brought an end to its exclusive partnership with UberEats. The move is part of the fast food giant’s effort to widen the reach of its McDelivery service to customers.

McDonald’s partnership with DoorDash will launch in the Houston, Texas area across over 200 restaurants on July 29.

Under this partnership, the fast food giant’s menu will be available on DoorDash’s subscription program, offering its members with unlimited free delivery on orders of $12 or more.

Since 2017, Uber Eats has singularly handled McDonald’s delivery in about 64 percent of the chain’s stores in the US. Since then, delivery has grown to be $3 billion business for McDonald’s. 

Chris Kempczinski, Head of McDonald’s US, said, “Building on the success of McDelivery in the US, we’re excited to make McDelivery accessible to customers on DoorDash, which is available in all 50 states and reaches 80 percent of Americans, making it even more convenient for our customers to enjoy their favorite McDonald’s menu items on their terms.”

Christopher Payne, Chief Operating Officer, DoorDash, added, “We are excited to make that entire equation work.”

Uber Eats is targeting young professionals in metros and joint families in smaller towns to grow its footprint. The company’s move is aimed at creating a significant mark on the Indian palette as the online food delivery market in the country goes hyper-competitive.

Launched by Uber in 2014, Uber Eats is an American online food ordering and delivery platform. It came to India in May 2017.

Raj Beri, Head of Uber Eats-Asia Pacific, said, "We're actually seeing a trend of multiple combinations of orders at once in India, which is not limited to just on Friday nights or festivals but on a regular basis."

In Earlier 2019, reports said that the elderly population was behind the success of Uber Eats' business in Japan. But, the platform’s growth in India is beyond age demographics and more towards the collective adoption of digital food delivery services.

The business of Uber Eats grew by 50% (month-on-month) in its first year of operations in the country. Currently, Uber Eats is available in 38 cities.

Nikki Neuburger, Global Head of Marketing, Uber Eats, stated, "Content, storytelling and just being transparent with the background behind where your food is coming from is very important. It would enable communication between restaurateurs and customers."

Stephan Chau, Senior Director and Product Manager, Uber Eats, added, "The company is using advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to safeguard its customers' data. We don't have reasons to really want to expose our users' data outside of context. Our goal is to make sure that the users understand our steps and benefit from transparency."

Uber is working on a new dine-in option that will allow users to dine-in at restaurants. The company already permits users to get food delivered to their doorstep, and even pick-up food from restaurants.

This new step is in line with Uber’s plan to expand its offerings. In recent times, the company has been aggressively testing new ways of reaching out to more customers with Uber Eats.

The new dine-in option is being tested in Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, and San Diego in the United States. It will allow users to order food at a restaurant, and then go eat at the restaurant at their preferred time. This feature will be very helpful for the people who are in a rush as it will reduce the amount of time they have to wait for the food to be ready.

An Uber spokesperson said, “We’re always thinking about new ways to enhance the Eats experience.”

Uber will start testing food delivery by drone as it ramps up its Uber Eats service that partners with restaurants. The ride-hailing giant has been granted regulatory approval to begin tests of delivering food by drone in the region of San Diego, California, at its Uber Elevate Summit.

Luke Fischer, Head of flight operations, Uber Elevate, said, "Our goal is to expand Uber Eats drone delivery so we can provide more options to more people at the tap of a button."

"We believe that Uber is uniquely positioned to take on this challenge as we're able to leverage the Uber Eats network of restaurant partners and delivery partners as well as the aviation experience and technology of Uber Elevate," he added.

For logistical reasons, the drones will not be delivering directly to customers, but to a safe drop-off location where an Uber Eats driver will complete the order.

Uber had created a proprietary airspace management system called Elevate Cloud Systems, which will guide the drones to their location.

Separately, Uber has also launched its newest self-driving vehicle produced by Volvo Cars.

Eric Meyhofer, CEO of Uber Advanced Technologies Group, stated, "Working in close partnership with companies like Volvo is a key ingredient to effectively building a safe, scalable, self-driving fleet."

Subway has struck a deal with Uber Eats for providing delivery from over 100 restaurants in select New Zealand cities.

Chris Churchmichael, Country Director for Subway New Zealand, said, “The agreement would allow Subway restaurants to tap into the rapidly growing delivery market in New Zealand, at breakfast, lunch, dinner and anytime in between.”

“We know Kiwis want freshly-made and nutritious delivery choices, however, having their favorite Subway foot long meal delivered hasn’t been an option until now,” he added.

Andy Bowie, Uber Eats’ Country Manager for New Zealand, stated, “Searches for ‘nutritious’ options in the app are increasing and Subway is the perfect partner to help us respond to this demand and provide a greater selection of delicious meals to eaters whether they are at work, home or even the park.”

Recently, Subway launched a brand refresh for modernizing its offerings and a new website that highlights key supplier stories and educates customers about the chain’s fresh ingredients.

Ben Miles, Senior Manager for Brand Marketing at Subway, said, “The sandwich chain is a strong supporter of Kiwi produce. Some of their supply partners include local business Yarrows, which has supplied Subway New Zealand with their dough for more than 20 years and NZ brand Tegel, which has partnered with Subway since the brand opened its first restaurant in the country in 1995 and now supplies restaurants with a range of chicken and turkey products.”

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.

Uber Eats has roped in Bollywood star Alia Bhatt as its brand ambassador in India. For Uber Eats, India is the first country where it has appointed a brand ambassador.

Bhavik Rathod, Head of Uber Eats India and South Asia, said, "We are excited to have Alia on board, as we stay focused on building and strengthening our presence in India."

Uber Eats' first Indian launch was in Mumbai in May 2017. Currently, the company is present in 37 cities across the country.

Alia Bhatt stated, "My work hours and plans keep changing, so the freedom/flexibility to get what I’m craving for whenever I want, right at the tap of a button, almost seems magical. I’m delighted to be associated with a young, innovative and energetic brand like Uber Eats and I look forward to all the excitement that’s in store with this partnership."

Uber Eats, a food delivery platform, has entered into a strategic partnership with Café Coffee Day (CCD) to launch a virtual restaurant network that will be available for delivery exclusively on Uber Eats app. Under this partnership, the first restaurant brand is scheduled to launch in November.

As part of the partnership, Uber Eats will provide CCD with data, analytics and insights to help identify food or cuisines that consumers crave the most. This will enable both entities to launch menu offerings as per evolving consumer trends for multiple 'delivery-only' virtual restaurants. 

Jason Droege, Vice President of UberEverything at Uber Technologies, said, "We are thrilled to partner with Cafe Coffee Day the pioneers of café culture in India - our fastest growing global market. Using experience and lessons learned in the virtual restaurant space from our global operations, we hope to provide our Indian restaurant partners greater growth opportunities. Our customers too will enjoy ordering and eating their favourite everyday meals at the tap of a button."

Venu Madhav, Chief Executive Officer, Cafe Coffee Day, said, "With this association, we aim to take the goodwill and trust earned in the F&B space and combine it with new age reality of virtual restaurants to offer everyday meals that can be delivered to nomadic millennials at home or at work in a convenient manner.”

"We are proud to partner with a fellow global brand, Uber Eats for this new age venture which will redefine the foodservice industry in India. Their strength and expertise in the business of home delivery will ensure delight to millions of aspiring youngsters who have moved away from their homes with great quality products from Cafe Coffee Day’s virtual restaurants every day across the country," Madhav further added.

Food-delivery firm UberEats has collaborated with Tata AIG, a general insurance provider, for offering comprehensive insurance covers to its delivery fleets in India. 

The insurance programme provides Uber Eats delivery partners for up to Rs 5 lakh against accidental death or permanent disability. The programme is applicable when delivery executives are on the road providing delivery services through the Uber Eats App.

The policy also offers Rs 2 lakh in medical expenses and outpatient cost of Rs 50,000. It covers all delivery personnel across 29 Indian cities, where UberEats is present in.

Deepak Reddy, Head of Central Operations, UberEats India, said, "While the programme currently offers accidental insurance, we are thinking of extending it to areas relating to life and medical insurance. We are also running small pilots to negotiate term policies for agents in their individual capacity, at attractive rates due to the scale of UberEats' platform."

Parag Ved, Executive Vice President & Head, Consumer Lines, Tata AIG, said, "Our expertise in risk understanding and knowledge of various industries has helped us build insurance solutions that are relevant to diverse consumer needs. Today's new age business ecosystems provide an opportunity for us to develop innovative product constructs that delivers value to the end consumer. We believe that this product will surely add to 'building a rewarding experience' ethos for Uber Eats and their delivery partners."

If there are more Zomato and Swiggy riders zipping around town these days, here’s the reason, the battle for supremacy in the online food delivery space has entered the last mile. Platforms such as Zomato, Swiggy and UberEats have more than doubled the salaries of their delivery boys and girls – in some cases – over the past three or four months alone. They’re also offering heftier incentives for deliveries during peak hours and heavy rains, according to almost a dozen delivery executives, logistics players and fleet suppliers who spoke to ET.

Many food delivery ‘executives’ now earn between ₹40,000 and ₹50,000 per month, compared with ₹18,000 to ₹20,000 previously. Not surprisingly, other online retailers, grocery and ecommerce logistics companies such as Flipkart, Big Basket, Delhivery and Fedex are taking the hit, with their delivery executives earning between ₹16,000 and ₹18,000 a month, including incentives.

“What food aggregators are paying delivery executives (bikers) is insane and impacting everybody. Bikers who deliver for Flipkart, Amazon and Big Basket are getting impacted as delivery boys are switching for want of better pay-outs,” a senior executive at one of the affected companies told ET. While Flipkart and Amazon declined to comment on the matter, Delhivery and Big Basket did not respond to ET’s emailed queries. Both Swiggy and Zomato have been ramping up their delivery fleets after having scaled up their capacity significantly since the start of the year.

Experts Divided Over Impact

While Swiggy has over 55,000 delivery executives – up from about 30,000 in January, Zomato’s fleet stands at over 50,000 from 1,800 in January. Over 60% of Zomato’s deliveries are fulfilled through its in-house fleet under Runnr.

“(We) currently have over 50,000 delivery partners as a part of our last-mile delivery fleet. We see this number growing by another 60% by the end of the year,” a spokesperson for Gurgaon-based Zomato said in response to ET’s queries.

Zomato, Swiggy and UberEats did not share details of the pay-outs for their fleets.

Swiggy is looking at more than doubling its fleet capacity to over 100,000 delivery personnel over the next six to nine months, according to people aware of the food delivery company’s strategy.

Ola-backed Foodpanda is looking to scale its 10,000-strong fleet to over 25,000 over the next year. Foodpanda delivery executives earn up to Rs 25,000 per month, the company said.

While salaries haven’t increased across all cities where Swiggy and Zomato are present, heavy-demand pockets across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and New Delhi have seen delivery boys earn between Rs 80 and Rs 120 per order, including incentives. This is significantly higher than the Rs 40-45 they earned earlier or the rate prevalent in markets where there’s less or no competition.

While Zomato doled out bigger pay-outs in Hyderabad and Bengaluru to strengthen its presence, Swiggy has done the same in New Delhi and Gurgaon as it looks to breach the market dominated by Zomato.

Food delivery executives get paidon a per-order aswell ashourly basis. According tologisticscompanies and delivery executives, UberEats offers Rs 75-Rs 100 per hour as wages, while some on Zomato earn about Rs 4,500 per 60-hour week in cities like Mumbai. Orders delivered per executive have slipped to12-15 a day from 18-20 previously because the fleet size has increased.

Inevitably, the increase in salaries of food delivery executives draws comparisons with the ballooning earnings in the ride-hailing space during the heyday of 2014-2015,when drivers took home Rs 70,000 to Rs 100,000 a month.

Zomato, Swiggy and UberEats Paying Higher Cash on Delivery While industry experts are divided over the impact of this trend, most of them maintain that this will hurt entities outside food aggregation only in the short term. Others said there is a key difference between the earnings of ride-hailing drivers and food delivery agents because drivers with cab aggregators have to bear the cost of the vehicles.

“The switching costs for delivery boys across food delivery platforms are fairly low, unlike ride hailing. With Zomato and Swiggy vying for leadership across multiple markets, the high salaries at present can turn viable as utilisation will increase with penetration,” said Ujjwal Chaudhry, engagement manager at Red-Seer Consulting.

According to experts, grocery and ecommerce-focussed logistics companies will have to beef up their delivery staff salaries in the short term to minimise the impact on their fleet size. Logistics companies Shadowfax and Grab are looking at falling back on a wider order density due to their operations across sectors including food, medicines and ecommerce, thus enabling higher pay-outs for their executives.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has ordered food delivery platforms -Swiggy, UberEats, Zomato - to delist restaurants from their platform which do not have license from the regulator. The authority has also asked ten such firms to submit report on the action taken along with details of the restaurants registered on their platform by the end of this month.

FSSAI’s dictate came after a series of complaints related to the sub-standard food being supplied by eateries listed on the food delivery platforms. “… for online food platforms, it is time to work harder to ensure compliance as soon as possible with this new legal,” the food authority said.

Apart from Swiggy, UberEats, Zomato, FSSAI has sent notices to Box8, Fasoos, FoodCloud, Foodmongo, Foodpanda, JusFood and LimeTray.

In February this year, FSSAI operationalized guidelines for e-commerce firms engaged in food business which made it mandatory for them to display FSSAI license number of listed firms on their platforms. They were also required to have an agreement with their listed partners to comply with the FSS Act, Rules and Regulations.

However, FSSAI noted with serious concern that “the compliance to these guidelines was patchy and there were complaints of restaurants/hotels without FSSAI license being listed and allowed to offer/sell food products on e-commerce food service platforms. There were also several complaints of sub-standard food being delivered to consumers through online market aggregators,” the food regulator said.

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.

The chief executive of online food ordering firm Delivery Hero expects competition from the likes of Amazon and Uber to make it harder to make money although the German company is still targeting breakeven this year.

Niklas Ostberg, a Swedish former management consultant who founded the company in 2011 said Delivery Hero has the critical mass to fend off the U.S. giants, but admits their move into food delivery could dampen profits.

Ostberg said, "It will be difficult for all the market players to survive. Everybody is fighting for size, because only then you have a chance. It will be hard to make any money as long as competition is as it is right now." As most people only download and use one food delivery app, start-ups spend heavily on marketing to win control of markets. Uber and Amazon can promote food delivery to existing customers and cross-subsidise the business.

The German firm which is the world's biggest food delivery platform covers more than 40 countries in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, and partners with more than 150,000 restaurants.

The company claims to be the market leader in 35 of those countries, although it is battling with Takeaway.com for control of its home market, prompting the chief executive of its Dutch rival to raise the idea of a merger last month.

Ostberg further said acquisitions were less important, now the company has reached scale, although it would still consider "interesting" targets. "We have the size that is necessary to sustain competition.”

Delivery Hero, in which South African e-commerce giant Naspers and Germany's Rocket Internet are major investors, is well placed for more acquisitions after it made a placement of new shares to raise funds.

Delivery Hero, Takeaway.com and Britain's Just Eat have established their positions in market by creating booking platforms that advertise local restaurants, which handle their own deliveries.

The entry of Uber and Amazon into the market has led to company to focus more on managing logistics.

Ostberg said, "Economics may get tougher ... we may compete more and more on the delivery fees. The winner will be the one who is efficient enough to afford it."

Both UberEats and Amazon has built more restaurants in nearly 200 cities around the world, while UberEats alone has   more than 80,000  restaurants while Amazon currently has a food delivery service open to members of its Prime shopping club in cities across the United States and in London.

Last week, Delivery Hero reported a rise of 60 percent in 2017 sales to 544 million euros ($671.68 million) on a like-for-like basis, with growth particularly strong in the Middle East and North Africa, followed by Asia.

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.

Ride-hailing player Ola is making an entry into the food delivery space again, this time by acquiring Foodpanda India from Germany based Delivery Hero Group.

While the companies did not disclose the details of the deal size, sources have pegged the stock-based acquisition at under $50 million. The move will also see Ola invest another $200 million, as it takes on rival UberEats and incumbents like Zomato and Swiggy.

Saurabh Kochhar, former CEO of Foodpanda India has left the company and Pranay Jivrajka, founding partner at Ola has been appointed as the interim CEO of Foodpanda and will work with the existing leadership team at the company.

Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of Ola said “Foodpanda has come to be a very efficient and profit-focused business over the last couple of years. Our commitment to invest $200 million in Foodpanda India will help the business be focused on growth by creating value for customers and partners. With Delivery Hero’s global leadership and Ola’s platform capabilities with unique local insights, this partnership is born out of strength.”

Ola cab drivers would pick up the food from the partner restaurants and deliver orders that came up when they were driving around the locality. This made a significant dent on the revenue that came from the regular cab rides.

According to analysts, Ola is focussed on diversifying its offerings by making an acquisition in the food delivery segment, after lessons learnt on starting up and failing with Ola Cafe in the past. The $200 million investment in Foodpanda is not a very high figure, so Ola has made a significant entry into acquiring a sizable portion of the food delivery space through this move. Through this deal it will easily take on UberEats, which is also failing to pick up traction for varied reasons, from customer stickiness to high restaurant commission charges at 30%.

Delivery Hero CEO, Niklas Ostberg said “The Delivery Hero Group believes the partnership with Ola, will enable the company to further consolidate markets where it strategically makes sense to collaborated with leading local players. We consider our stake in Ola as a very valuable asset, while Ola’s investment commitment in Foodpanda India is a clear and confident sign to the Indian market”.

Making inroads into the city's food market, Uber launched its on-demand food delivery mobile application UberEATS. Hyderabad is the seventh city in the country where the cab aggregator has started the app.

UberEATS India head Bhavik Rathod said “Company has partnered with over 300 restaurants across the city for taking delivery orders. We are committed to make eating effortless for everyone, by giving them convenience of ordering food at the push of a button. We hope it helps everyone discover great food through the perfect pairing of amazing restaurant partners, our technology and the Uber delivery network.

Tollywood's leading actress Rakul Preet Singh, as the first customer, placed an order formally on the app.

In India, UberEATS was first launched in Mumbai in May this year. Within six months, the service has been expanded to Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Chennai, and Chandigarh and now in Hyderabad.

Jason Droege, the head of UberEverything, a business unit within Uber that focuses on creating innovative business ventures  said “The app has gained great momentum in India which has been one of the fastest growing markets in Asia Pacific region (APAC) for the company.”

Uber has launched its food delivery service in Bengaluru with delivery charges of just Re. 1. The regular charge is Rs. 25. Earlier this year Uber had launches its food delivery service in Mumbai and Gurugram.

In Bengaluru, the service will start in three southern residential areas – Koramangala, HSR Layout and BTM Layout. Uber has partnered with more than 300 restaurants to start with. The density of restaurants that UberEats covers is approximately 10 restaurants per sq. Km Paytm is the only payment method now, but the company will launch card payments soon.

"In rides, we created a new market with efficiency and grew the market. We have a consumer base we can tap into and have technology and data that we can dig into (for food delivery). We will bring more efficiency in the market with data about traffic density, traffic speed and delivery partner location," said Bhavik Rathod, head of UberEats India.

The choice of the localities, according to Uber, was made on the basis of restaurant density. The Koramangala region, said Rathore, has one of the highest number of restaurants in India. Swiggy and Zomato now deliver to many locations across Bengaluru.

Uber said all of its ride customers were potential UberEats customers. Uber is promising a 35 minute delivery. The UberEats app has more than 5 million downloads and was launched in Santa Monica, California, three years ago. Unlike Uber rides, consumers can place orders on the website too. 

Burger chain, McDonald's has collaborated with UberEATS to launch McDelivery service to select Canadian cities. UberEATS users now have access to the McDonald’s menu via UberEATS’ app, with all menu prices same as they are in-restaurant, with additional delivery fees.

McDelivery with UberEATS is available in 187 restaurants across Canada and plans to be in more than 60 more by the end of the summer.

By the end of the summer, the partnership plans to offer the service at 31 restaurants in Montreal, 18 in Ottawa, 145 in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area, 43 in Edmonton and 20 in Calgary.

Cab aggregator, Uber has announced expansion of its food delivery service, UberEATS, in the Delhi-NCR region starting with Gurugram. Uber has onboarded about 300 partners in Gurugram, which will be expanded in the coming days.

Bhavik Rathod, India Head, UberEATS, said, "UberEATS will be available in Gurugram initially and will be extended to other parts of the Delhi-NCR region soon."

The US-based firm had launched the service in India last month, beginning with Mumbai.

Rathod said, "We had launched UberEATS in certain parts of Mumbai and within a few weeks, we have scaled it to cover almost the entire city, given the demand. We hope to see similar patterns here (in Delhi-NCR)."

He added, "Estimates suggest the food delivery market in India has a $15-20 billion potential. Uber launched its services in India four years ago and has since then, it has changed the way people travel. UberEATS will bring in the same ease and reliability to food delivery."

The company has also added a few hundred delivery partners, who will ensure that the food is delivered at the scheduled time.

Based on a person's location, the UberEATS app will display popular local restaurants open at the time, allowing users to choose from a menu of options.

However, users will have to pay for the delivery using Paytm mobile wallets. Uber is working on adding more payment options to the platform.

Rathod said, "Our partner restaurants will have access to data analytics into what customers are buying more, around what time is the demand higher etc. These insights will help them plan better and improve their earnings as well."

Rathod said, "UberEATS is profitable in some cities and he hopes the Indian operations will move along the same lines and break-even soon." 

Fast food major, McDonald's is likely to collaborate with Uber to deliver food in over 1,000 outlets across the US.

With the initiative, called, McDelivery, the fast food company aims at winning back young customers who are willing to pay for food brought to their doors. 

Steve Easterbrook , CEO, McDonald’s, said, "Through the ease of the UberEATS app, our customers can enjoy their favourite McDonald's foods delivered right to them enjoying greater choice, control and personalisation than ever before.” 

According to UberEATS fees, food delivery charge is $5.

The domestic online food-delivery space is likely to see another big consolidation move play out. UberEATS and Zomato have put in a bid to acquire food-delivery and logistics startup Runnr, as per revelations done by the sources.

While the UberEATS offer values the Bengaluru-based Runnr at $50 million, Zomato has pegged the valuation at $30 million, sources said.

Runnr was formed after the merger of two of the most highprofile and well-funded startups of 2015 -hyperlocal logistics Roadrunnr and food-delivery venture TinyOwl.

Another source revealed that, "They are also in the midst of discussions with financial investors for a $6-10 million funding round."

As per t he source, there are three options on the table, but a decision is yet to be made. Both UberEAST and Zomato have put in a term sheet at different valuations. There may be a chance that the financing round may go through for now as the board decided not to go for a complete sale. A term sheet is a non-binding agreement for a potential investment.

Runnr started off afresh last year as a consumer-facing food delivery firm, and was competing with the likes of Swiggy, Zomato and Foodpanda. It recently shuttered its consumer-facing business and has gone back to being a logistics company, which is now delivering for other food-delivery players.

Uber spokesperson said, "This is baseless speculation."

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.

Connecting people to the food they love, Uber Eats, the on-demand food delivery app, today revealed an all-new global brand refresh. The new look of the app is even more vibrant, lively, delightful and aptly reflects the endless possibilities of food that the app offers.

Commenting on the brand refresh Bhavik Rathod, Head of Uber Eats India said, “It has been a great journey for us since we launched Uber Eats in India earlier this year. At Uber Eats our aim is to lead ‘the future of food’ in India by breaking the stereotype of food delivery and helping restaurants grow their business with delivery, as well as actionable data and insights. We hope our consumers in India love the new Uber Eats.”

In India, Uber Eats launched in May this year with Mumbai as its first city. Since then, the service has expanded to 6 more cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Chennai, Chandigarh and Hyderabad, with a network of over 5000 restaurant partners across these cities.