Page 10 - bne_Tech_05_2020

Leaders
May 2020 www.intellinews.com I Page 10
According to Uber's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulatory filing, "These decisions were made as part of Uber’s ongoing strategy to be in first or second position in all Eats markets by leaning into investment in some countries while exiting others."
The regulatory filing explained what Uber plans
to do with the savings, "The discontinued and transferred markets represented 1% of Eats Gross Bookings and 4% of Eats Adjusted Ebitda losses in Q1 2020. Consistent with our stated strategy, we will look to reinvest these savings in priority markets where we expect a better return on investment," the company said in its regulatory filing with the SEC.
This is not the first time that Uber has left a market where it is not the market leader. In January, the company announced it had sold its food delivery business in India to Zomato, one of the biggest food apps in the country.
"Our Uber Eats team in India has achieved
an incredible amount over the last two years,
and I couldn’t be prouder of their ingenuity
and dedication. India remains an exceptionally important market to Uber and we will continue
to invest in growing our local Rides business, which is already the clear category leader. We have been very impressed by Zomato’s ability to grow rapidly in a capital-efficient manner and we wish them continued success," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at the time as cited by Forbes.
Russia remains a key market for the company but it has not been big enough to go it alone and has teamed up with Russia’s internet powerhouse, Yandex, the most valuable tech company in Europe.
Yandex NV, Russia’s largest search engine, bought local food-delivery firm Foodfox to expand its tie-up with Uber Technologies Inc. in 2017 and
the partners have been investing heavily in recent years to maintain their market share.
in Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) with Yandex.Taxi into a $3.7bn joint venture to be controlled by the Russian company, as it battles across the globe with local car-sharing and food-delivery startups. The deal, approved by the Russian antitrust service, included Uber Eats, a spinoff of the taxi business.
The venture’s food delivery division will be headed by Foodfox founders Maxim Firsov and Sergey Polissar, Yandex said in a statement at the time.
Foodfox already worked with over 2,000 restaurants in Moscow and the combined company has continued to expand its partnership network over the last two and half years.
Uber Eats offers food from “several hundred” restaurants in Moscow as well as delivering McDonald’s orders under a global contract.
However, like the Polish market, the Russian food delivery business is very competitive. Uber Eats has to compete with market leader Delivery Club that is owned by Mail.ru Group, which has contracts with companies such as Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts and Subway.
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Uber agreed in July 2017 to merge its taxi business