There are more opponents.
The global pandemic of the new coronavirus has made Uber’s life difficult. In addition to the 60% -70% drop in total bookings in Seattle, Uber Eats, the Uber Eats takeaway business that currently has the greatest growth potential due to restaurant closures, is also facing a bottleneck.
In order to encourage travel, Uber has announced that it will provide 10 million free rides and meal delivery services for medical staff and the elderly. However, this does not help the overall situation. To this end, Uber is struggling to save itself.
Recently, Uber is promoting cooperation with local supermarkets to develop delivery services. In Spain, Uber and Galp service stations have reached a cooperation to provide delivery services for food, medicine and cleaning products in 15 cities; in France, Uber and supermarket giant Carrefour reached a distribution agreement; in India , Uber entered into similar deals with online retailer BigBasket and chain store Spencer’s Retail; in Brazil, Uber also signed contracts with several pharmacies and pet stores …
During the epidemic, online orders from foreign supermarkets continued to grow, and the shortage of delivery staff increased the inventory problem. This is not the first time Uber has tried supermarket delivery. Uber has already established partnerships with a supermarket in Australia (Coles) and the Costcutter brand in the United Kingdom as early as 2019, and about 600 independent convenience stores have been launched on Uber Eats.
In addition, Uber is also promoting the reduction of fees for users, merchants and delivery staff, including the exemption of the cost of independent restaurants on the Uber Eats in the United States and the United Kingdom, the delivery staff ’s commission, and the diagnosis of the diagnosis. Drivers and delivery staff infected with New Coronary Pneumonia provide 14 days of financial support.
According to Reuters reports, some Uber drivers report that their income has dropped by 80%, and some drivers have stopped service due to health problems. The newly launched supermarket distribution business provides more income channels for drivers who make a living in the gig economy on the Uber platform. At the same time, Uber also launched Work Hub to help drivers find more employment opportunity.
According to Engadget, drivers can currently receive takeaway or freight orders on Uber Eats, Uber Freight, or apply for other positions within the company in the temporary work plan “Uber Works” released by Uber earlier. Such as warehouse and customer service.
This outbreak has saddened many travel platforms. In China, in addition to shifting to more profitable insurance business, Didi is also exploringCable has an errand business with cash flow. On Uber’s side, online supermarkets are the next breakthrough.
However, for supermarkets, the travel platform has driver resources and user traffic, but the scenes do not match, so it may not be their only choice. For example, Carrefour also reached a distribution partnership with Spanish startup Glovo. British delivery platform Deliveroo is also seizing cooperation opportunities with supermarkets. Although Uber under the epidemic has ushered in new development opportunities, it has more opponents.