The CEOs of Uber and Just Eat Takeaway spar as the European food delivery battle heats up

Uber Eats Delivery

Jonathan Raa | NurPhoto via Getty Images

LONDON – The CEOs of Uber and Just Eat Takeaway became embroiled in a public feud Wednesday after Uber announced its intention to launch in Germany – a market currently dominated by Just Eat Takeaway.

Uber Eats will launch in Berlin in the coming weeks and may expand to other German cities in the coming months. The news was first reported by The Financial Times and confirmed to CNBC.

Jitse Groen, CEO of Just Eat Takeaway, accused Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on Wednesday of trying to “squeeze” his company’s stock price on Twitter. Shares of Just Eat Takeaway closed nearly 3%.

Khosrowshahi replied, “Advice: Pay a little less attention to your stock price in the short term and more attention to your Tech and Ops.”

Shortly afterwards, Groen replied, “If I may … start paying taxes, minimum wages and social security contributions before advising a founder on how to run his business.”

Uber operates its ride-hailing service in 13 cities in Germany, but the company has never launched Uber Eats in what it considers to be a strategically important market.

An Uber spokesperson told CNBC, “As part of our continued investment in Germany, we are delighted 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 employees access the benefits of the Uber Eats market. “

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 lockdowns led to more people ordering take-aways.

“Europe in particular has been a bright spot for (Eats), both in terms of some of the growth we’ve seen, but also, frankly, in terms of strengthening our market position,” Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, Uber’s senior vice president of delivery, reportedly told The Financial Times.

He added that Just Eat Takeaway does in fact “dominate” the German market despite its “extraordinarily high” commission rates, the report said. “That translates into the fact that consumers and merchants are pretty desperate for additional options,” he said.

Uber Eats takes a commission of up to 30% on any order, depending on the services it provides.

Uber Eats hasn’t gone down well everywhere it launched. The service was pulled from India last year and South Korea in 2019. The activities in parts of Eastern Europe, South America and Africa were also closed or sold.

Uber, which hopes to become profitable for the first time this year, said its food delivery couriers in Germany will be hired by fleet management companies contracted with Uber.

The company pays the fleet managers for every job they carry out and it is up to them to decide how they pay their employees.

Competition in food delivery

UK Just Eat and Dutch Takeaway.com announced their intention to merge in July 2019 as part of a £ 9 billion (dollar conversion) deal.

Others have tried and failed to take on Just Eat Takeaway in Germany, including UK headquarters Deliveroo, which withdrew from Germany in 2019 to focus on other markets.

Last June, Just Eat Takeaway, one of the largest food delivery companies in the world, announced plans to merge with Grubhub in the US after Grubhub’s talks with Uber failed.

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