To minimize competition and increase profit, Uber is embedding UberEats in its parent app.
Uber, now synonymous to cab booking, has given tough competition in ride-sharing and food delivery. And so, it has now decided to add its standalone UberEats app to the main app itself.
Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, was heard saying on the company’s first earnings call last month,
“Suffice it to say we are starting to experiment in ways in which we can upsell our ride customers to Eats deals in a way that — you know, to be plain-spoken — isn’t annoying . . . I will tell you that we are very, very early in the stages of exploring the many, many ways in which our Ride business can help continue to build our Eats business and vice versa by the way . . . I don’t want to give away too much.”
Uber is making a web view of UberEats to make it accessible on its main app, with a fully functional web version as well. Also, UberEats will still be fully operational on its standalone app.
Uber aims to increase its customer base with this move as riders would be able to see food delivery options, at the same time getting the 50% of Eats customers who do not ride in Uber to use it for transportation. This indeed, is a very strategic move, after its decision of adding a 5-star rating to UberEats.
The merged app is available for all iOS users, only in a few cities, where no scooters or bike services are provided, such as NYC, SF, and LA. However, it's only available for 17% of Android users.
Khosrowshahi concluded on the call,
“Really what we are looking to do is significantly increase the percentage of our MAPCs [monthly active platform consumers] that use both products [ride-hailing and Eats] and when we see customers using more than one product, their engagement with the platform more than doubles. So not only does engagement with Uber increase, but the engagement with our individual products increases as well, so it’s kind of a win, win, win.”, said Khosrowshahi.
Uber knows the value of reaching more and more users to increase profit in the coming years. Long way to go!
Check out our detailed article on the Uber app development process here.
