Uber Eats delivery
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LONDON – Uber and Just Eat Takeaway CEOs entered into a public dispute on Wednesday after Uber announced plans to launch in Germany – a market currently dominated by Just Eat Takeaway.
Uber Eats will launch in Berlin in the coming weeks and will expand to other German cities in the coming months. The news was first reported by The Financial Times and confirmed by CNBC.
Jitse Groen, CEO of Just Eat Takeaway, accused Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi of trying to “lower” the price of his company’s share on Twitter on Wednesday. Shares of Just Eat Takeaway closed at almost 3%.
Khosrowshahi replied, “Tip: pay a little less attention to short-term stock prices and more attention to your technology and operators.”
Shortly afterwards, Groen replied, “If you’ll allow me … start paying taxes, a minimum wage, and social security premiums before giving a founder advice on how they should run their business.”
Uber operates its travel service in 13 cities in Germany, but the company has never launched Uber Eats in what it considers a strategically important market.
An Uber spokesman told CNBC: “As part of our ongoing investment in Germany, we are excited to launch Uber Eats to unlock the full potential of Uber’s mobility and delivery platform.”
“Based on feedback from restaurants and communities, we believe there is a strong demand for more food delivery services and a more competitive market. We look forward to helping consumers, restaurants and workers access the benefits of the Uber Eats market very soon.” . “
In Europe, Uber Eats is currently available in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Ireland. About 24 million people used the app to order food from about 126,000 restaurants in Europe last year, as the blockages led to more people ordering food.
“Europe, in particular, has been a bright spot for (Eats), both in terms of some of the growth we have seen and, frankly, in terms of strengthening our market position.” Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, Uber’s vice president of delivery, told The Financial Times.
He added that Just Eat Takeaway actually “dominates” the German market, despite its “extraordinarily high” commission rates, according to the report. “This means that consumers and traders are actually very desperate for additional options,” he said.
Uber Eats takes a commission of up to 30% on each order, depending on the services it offers.
Uber Eats has not dropped well wherever it has been launched. The service was withdrawn from India last year and from South Korea in 2019. Operations also closed or were sold in parts of Eastern Europe, South America and Africa.
Uber, which hopes to make a profit for the first time this year, said its German food delivery couriers will be hired by fleet management companies that are contracted to Uber.
The company will pay the fleet management companies for each order they place and it is up to them to decide how their employees pay.
Competition in food delivery
Just Eat in the UK and Takeaway.com in the Netherlands have announced that they intend to merge in July 2019 as part of a £ 9 billion deal (conversion into dollars).
Others have tried and failed to fight Germany’s Just Eat Takeaway, including the UK-based Deliveroo, which withdrew from Germany in 2019 to focus on other markets.
In June last year, Just Eat Takeaway, one of the world’s largest food delivery companies, announced plans to merge with Grubhub in the United States after Grubhub’s talks with Uber fell through.