Uber has transformed the way we commute or order meals. And this is just the start.
Like many companies, Uber Technologies Inc. has spun off its secondary businesses into standalone companies. The most prominent one is Uber Eats.
Uber Eats is an American online food ordering and delivery platform that enables users to order food from their favorite local restaurants. Once the food is ready, Uber Eats facilitates its home delivery.
A Brief History of Uber Eats
Uber Eats was launched in August 2014 by its parent company, Uber Technologies Inc(.). Uber Eats came to be when founders Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick tried to use the company’s ride-sharing app to deliver food.
Initially, the company kicked off its food delivery service under the name UberFRESH in Santa Monica, California.
However, in 2015, the platform was renamed to Uber Eats. Within a year of operation, Uber Eats was launched internationally in Canada, London, and Paris.
Cut to today, when Uber Eats is one of the most loved food-on-demand delivery apps. Uber Eats has partnered with about 800,000 restaurants and offers services in over 11,000 cities. Indeed, Uber Eats has come a long way since 2014!
Uber Eats Market Share & Competitors
It’s not easy to dominate the food delivery landscape. Innovation happens in this industry at the speed of light, and it gets tougher and tougher to keep up with consumer demand. Even so, Uber Eats has maintained a majority market share of 33.28 %, closely followed by competitors like DoorDash and GrubHub, which have 27.59% and 21.21 % of the market share, respectively.
If you’re trying to build an app like Uber Eats or already own an Uber Eats Alternative app, this blog is a must-read. Understanding Uber Eats’ business and revenue model will help you identify revenue-generating opportunities in your business, helping you scale quickly. So, stay with us as we extensively explore Uber Eats’s business and revenue models.
Benefits of Using Aggregator Apps Like Uber Eats for Vendors
The food industry is competitive. Restaurants worldwide try perfecting sales and marketing to increase their profit margins. Many restaurants use aggregator apps like Uber Eats to facilitate online food delivery. How does this help them? Let’s find out:
Better Outreach
Uber Eats is a household brand and is globally accessible. By partnering, restaurants get to leverage Uber Eats’ brand popularity. As a result, restaurants can tap into new consumer segments, potentially increasing their orders and sales numbers.
Streamlined Operations
Seamlessly integrate Uber Eats with your existing point of sale (POS) software application. This allows you to manage virtual and physical orders from a single interface, increasing your sales channels without disrupting your original workflows.
Access to Functional Data
To optimize your restaurant business digitally, gain insights into key performance indicators such as daily orders, customer preferences, repeat orders, refunds, and average delivery time.
Marketing
Take advantage of Uber Eats’ in-app marketing and promotions and make it easy for more users to find your restaurant. With targeted marketing, you’ll increase awareness and expand your consumer base.
Uber Eats Business Model Canvas
The Uber Eats business model canvas can be understood by closely examining how its segments interact. Uber Eats has three major segments that propel the business forward: consumers, restaurants, and delivery partners. Before we examine Uber Eats’ segments, let’s quickly review the business model.
Understanding Uber Eats Business Model
Uber Eats is an on-demand food ordering and delivery platform. It was built around using Uber’s ride-hailing infrastructure to deliver restaurant meals. Hence, both Uber and Uber Eats have the same operational model.
Uber Eats partners with multiple restaurant vendors to offer various cuisines. App users can browse menus and order. At any given time, users can check the status of delivery drivers with real-time GPS tracking.
Restaurants are notified when an order is placed through Uber Eats. Once the meal is ready, Uber’s fleet delivers it to users’ doorsteps. Uber Eats is an intuitive platform that allows users, restaurants, and drivers to collaborate seamlessly.
Uber Eats Segments
Uber Eats’ business model depends on three major segments: consumers, restaurant vendors, and delivery partners. Their operational roles are briefly described below:
Consumers
Consumers use the Uber Eats app to browse and order food from their favorite local restaurants. They can also make payments through the app and track the delivery process.
Restaurants
Before restaurants can serve food online, they must sign up with Uber Eats. Once they are an Uber Eats partner, they can manage their menu, company profile, and pricing on the interface. Uber Eats enables restaurants to receive orders from app users and fulfill those through last-mile delivery.
Delivery Partners
Uber’s delivery fleet is responsible for carefully delivering the food prepared by the restaurant to customers. To do this, delivery drivers log in to the Uber Eats app for delivery requests, restaurant locations, customer addresses, and delivery instructions. They get paid or tipped through the app.
How Does The Business Model Work?
Here’s how the Uber Eats’ business model works:
- The app allows users to easily browse menus, look at local restaurants, and filter the results by cuisine, location, delivery time, and price.
- Once the app users choose their meals, they can add them to the check-out cart.
- Customers can review delivery fees, service fees, and the total cost of the order before paying. They can also apply promo or discount codes at this time.
- Now, customers can complete their transactions by choosing their preferred payment method—cash, card, or UPI.
- Once the payment is successfully completed, the restaurant receives the customer’s food order on their vendor portal.
- While the restaurant prepares the ordered meal, Uber Eats notifies the delivery personnel and requests that they arrive at the restaurant.
- The restaurant hands the packed meal to the delivery driver and informs the customer that their food has been dispatched.
- The user and the restaurant vendor can track the delivery partner in real time as they carry the food to the consumer’s doorstep.
Uber Eats Value Proposition
Uber proclaims itself as the ultimate platform for managing rides and meals globally. It aims to conflate physical realities with the digital world so that movement can happen at the tap of a button.
With a prime focus on convenience and affordability, Uber Eats’s value proposition can be summed up as follows:
- Provide fast, reliable food delivery services.
- Scale to multiple geographies and make Uber Eats universally accessible
- Partnering with local restaurants to offer a wide array of cuisine choices
- Foster transparency through real-time tracking and notifications
- Simplify payments and go cashless.
- Ensuring the highest standards of quality and safety
Uber Eats Key Partners
Customers are the lifeblood of Uber Eats. There is simply no business without them. That being said, several other stakeholders assist in the smooth functioning of Uber Eats. These key partners are mentioned below:
Delivery Fleets
Delivery partners pick up prepared meals from restaurants and deliver them directly to the consumers. After all, timely deliveries are vital for customer satisfaction and business growth.
Restaurant Vendors
Restaurant vendors allow Uber Eats to cater to a broad customer base. Partnering with multiple restaurants means Uber Eats can offer various cuisines. Restaurants also serve consumers high-quality food and have the resources to fulfil incoming orders.
Payment Processors
Payment processors handle financial transactions on Uber Eats and play a pivotal role in enhancing the platform’s security. As a consequence, users feel confident and safe ordering again and again.
Data Providers
With data, Uber Eats could dominate the food delivery landscape. Uber Eats depends on third-party data providers at each step of the way. For instance, It needs map and location data to achieve successful deliveries. It also needs consumer data to understand preferences and personalize marketing campaigns.
Uber Eats Target Consumers
Uber Eats’ target consumer base varies depending on the region and demographics. However, several driving factors influence consumers to place orders through the app. Based on those factors, consumer needs, and situations, we’ve classified them into the following categories:
- People Who Work a Lot
The largest consumer segment is made up of people with hectic schedules who don’t have time to cook meals. More than half of Uber Eats users are under the age of 34, and the younger demographics are driving sales.
- People Who Love Food!
Another vital consumer segment for Uber Eats is people who love trying new cuisines. This consumer segment loves sampling various local or international dishes, and Uber Eats is an ideal choice for this segment. Uber Eats strives to partner with a Multi-vendor Food Ordering System to serve this segment and offer maximum meal choices.
- People who are celebrating a special occasion
Consumers celebrating a birthday or an anniversary are more likely to order food through Uber Eats. Uber Eats captures this consumer segment by recording celebration dates and offering heavy discounts on those days.
- People who dislike going to restaurants
Are you still waiting for a table at your favourite restaurant? Most people are frustrated with jam-packed restaurants and slow dining services. They are critical Uber Eats consumers because they love the convenience of ordering in.
Marketing Channels Leveraged by Uber Eats
Uber Eats uses multiple channels to market and promote its app, which are briefly listed below:
- Using customized, targeted ads to reach potential consumers
- Leveraging in-app promotions to incentivize new users
- Effectively employing push notifications and email marketing to win back dormant users
- Uber Eats also has loyalty programs to celebrate time-tested consumers and give them an extra reason to order again
Uber Eats has established a solid online presence through social media, blogs, PRs, restaurant promotions, video ads, and its website. Its marketing strategy revolves around creating trending, value-based content that resonates with its audience.
Uber Eats Core Competencies
Ever wondered what makes Uber Eats an industry leader? Apps like DoorDash, GrubHub, or Postmates have been trying relentlessly to dominate the food delivery landscape, but in vain.
So, what is it that makes Uber Eats stand out from the crowd?
Globally Available
Uber Eats has a solid global presence. The Uber Eats food delivery app is widely accessible, and users don’t have to worry about downloading regional food delivery apps while travelling.
Leveraging the Uber Ecosystem
Uber Eats enables users to switch seamlessly from Uber to Uber Eats. Again, Uber Eats is capitalizing on consumer convenience by providing a single platform to request rides or piping-hot meals!
Excellent customer support
Uber Eats has mastered the art of customer satisfaction. They encourage users to voice their concerns through ratings and feedback. Also, Uber Eats’ refund process is fairly straightforward, with multiple communication channels, which makes it convenient for users to connect with company representatives.
Uber Eats Revenue Model
When Uber Eats rolled out internationally in 2016-17, it clocked an annual revenue of about 0.6 billion USD. Since then, the company has grown immensely. In 2023, Uber Eats generated revenue worth 3000 million USD in Q4 alone, averaging an annual revenue worth 12 billion USD! This means Uber Eats averaged an 11% year-on-year revenue growth–which is incredible for a food delivery app business.
How Much Does It Cost to Develop an App Like Uber Eats?
How Uber Eats Makes Money?
This brings us to an important question: How is Uber Eats making all this money? Fair. Let’s break down the revenue model of Uber Eats:
Commissions from Restaurant Vendors
Uber Eats is an aggregator platform that charges restaurants a 30% to 35% commission on the total value of every order!
In-app Marketing
Have you ever seen banner ads on Uber Eats? Or have you noticed how certain restaurants rank better than the rest when you search for your favourite cuisines? That’s in-app marketing. Uber Eats helps restaurant vendors gain more visibility by promoting them on the app, Which generates substantial revenue.
Service and Delivery Fees
For each order, Uber charges its users a fixed service fee and a dynamic delivery fee. Delivery fees vary based on distance, climate, and delivery driver availability. Delivery surge charges may apply if you’re ordering during peak hours. On the other hand, service fees are constant and can be up to 15% of the total order value.
Premium Subscriptions
Users can subscribe to Uber Eats to enjoy extra discounts and free deliveries. These month-on-month premium subscriptions provide a recurring source of income for the company—-while covertly building a loyal consumer base.
Beyond Food Deliveries
Uber Eats is constantly evolving. It has launched its grocery delivery service in select cities, which allows users to order groceries from local shops or supermarkets. Uber Eats has eliminated all the hassle of grocery shopping, and users seem to love it! Hence, Uber Eats’ grocery delivery service is another vital source of revenue.
Uber Eats’ Profit Margins
On 8th May 2024, Uber announced the results for Q1 20204. We have provided the highlights of this report below:
- Uber Eats (Delivery) witnessed gross bookings of $17.7 billion—an 18% YoY growth.
- Delivery revenue clocked at $32 billion this quarter, a 4% YOY growth.
- Adjusted EBITDA averaged $528 million, and the delivery EBITDA margin was about 3% of the gross bookings (0.2% better than 2023 Q$).
- Uber Eats contributes this improvement to high volume orders and advertising revenue.
Uber proudly deems this quarter profitable and believes its audiences are more engaged with the platform than before. 2024 Q1 saw accelerated gross bookings across the board—in mobility, freight, and food delivery.
Uber Eats Cost Structure
Now that we’ve looked at Uber Eats’ profit margins and quarterly growth, let’s understand its cost structure. Below, we’ve listed the expenses associated with an Uber Eats order:
Delivery payouts and expenses
Uber Eats needs to pay its delivery drivers for its timely services. The delivery fees depend on distance, weather, and fuel prices. Drivers get paid $1.50 per trip for picking up orders from a restaurant and $1.00 for drop-off. Additionally, they get $0.65 for every mile they drive. Uber Eats must also provide its drivers with smartphones, uniforms, and delivery bags.
Labor costs
9,373 employees work at Uber Eats. Now, that’s quite a payroll. The organization must pay its employees and provide insurance, office supplies, and 401K. Uber Eats has an army of staff, managers, and developers, and their salaries are a necessary expenditure for the organization.
Tech Infrastructure
Uber Eats is a tech company at heart. Hence, it must invest heavily in a technology stack that keeps the app running seamlessly. Uber Eats also needs to protect data and secure financial transactions. The company needs resources like third-party apps, data centers, and payment processors, which furthers its operating costs.
Sales and Marketing Expenses
Uber Eats spends a significant amount on advertising and promoting its platform. This includes social media advertising, influencer marketing, search engine marketing, and promotional events.
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Conclusion
Uber Eats has changed the way we look at food deliveries. By building an ecosystem of restaurant vendors and delivery drivers, Uber Eats has perfected the process of online food ordering and delivery.
As technology and consumer demands evolve, Uber Eats continues to thrive. It leverages data, logistics optimization, and delivery automation to serve its ever-growing consumer base.
Uber Eats has proved to be a reliable, convenient platform for food delivery. As the future unfolds and new brands emerge, Uber Eats will continue to dominate the industry because of its wide accessibility and impeccable branding.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- What are some of the top countries that use Uber Eats?
Uber Eats is globally accessible. However, Uber Eats generates the most revenue from countries like the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan. 54.07% of Uber Eats consumers are from the United States, 14.47% from Canada, and 8.12% from the UK.
- How can I build an Uber Eats clone?
Building an Uber Eats clone has always been challenging. Deonde offers white-label food delivery solutions that are entirely customizable and can be launched within a few days. Deonde’s food delivery suite is an affordable Uber Eats alternative, and you can start using it for as little as $99 per month!
- Is Uber Eats available in India?
No. Zomato, India’s leading food delivery app, acquired Uber Eats in 2020 through an all-stock deal. Since then, Uber Eats has discontinued food delivery operations in India and directed their users to the Zomato Platform.
- Why should I choose Deonde to build an app that’s precisely like Uber Eats?
Deonde offers a feature-rich Online food delivery software solution so you can quickly launch your online food delivery business without developing an app from scratch. Here are a few more reasons to consider Deonde:
Deonde’s Uber Eats clone solution is customizable. You can choose and edit features, elements, style, and layout to your liking. Plus, Deonde offers multiple homepage layouts! Deonde’s white-label food delivery app is also open to API integrations, and we support over 30+ payment gateways!
Ubereats business model is complex, I like the way you describe it simply. Very well written.