According to figures leaked to the Financial Times, Uber’s food delivery arm, UberEATS, has grown to represent 10% of the company’s global gross bookings in Q2.
That works out to a projected $3B in gross sales for this year — and it means UberEATS is now growing faster than Uber’s ride-sharing business.
Quick dominance
Launched in 2015 as a standalone app, UberEATS is a relative newcomer to the food delivery industry. But if these numbers are any indication, it’s on its way to the top of the food chain.
Grubhub, which has been around since ‘04 and currently boasts the largest share of the US market among food delivery companies, only reported $880m in gross food sales in Q2 — less than a third of what UberEATS purportedly raked in.
But it isn’t all gravy
Uber has been able to grow its food platform at a quick clip by offering its network of 2m drivers the option to deliver not just people, but chicken nuggets, but, these latest figures should be taken with a grain of salt: UberEATS is still unprofitable in 3/4ths of the cities it operates in, thanks to low margins and a stacked field of competitors.