Uber expands UberEATS to Delhi-NCR

Uber today announced expansion of its 'UberEATS' service in the Delhi-NCR region as it attempts to bite into the food delivery market currently dominated by the likes of FoodPanda, Swiggy and Zomato.
UberEATS will be available in Gurugram initially and will be extended to other parts of the Delhi-NCR region soon, UberEATS India Head Bhavik Rathod said.
The US-based firm had launched the service in India last month, beginning with Mumbai.
"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)," Rathod said.

Interestingly, Uber's move into the food delivery category in India came a year after its rival, Ola exited the category.
Ola offered 'Ola Cafe' in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. However, stiff competition in the segment forced the Bengaluru-based cab aggregator to shut down the food delivery service.

"Estimates suggest the food delivery market in India has a USD 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," he added.
UberEATS was started in 2014 as a small delivery pilot in Los Angeles and was later launched as a separate mobile app in Toronto in December 2015.

Over the past 18 months, UberEATS has been expanded to 27 countries in 97 cities covering 45,000 restuarants globally, including India.
Uber has onboarded about 300 partners in Gurugram, which will be expanded in the coming days. It 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.

"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.
He declined to comment on the revenue targets and investments the company is making for its food delivery venture.
Rathod said UberEATS is profitable in some cities and he hopes the Indian operations will move along the same lines and break-even soon.