Few corporate brands across the globe has come under intense criticism and attention, or its app so widely in use at least in the last one year as the ride-sharing service, Uber.
From lawsuits filed against it by its drivers’ union, pressures from the White House over its public stance on the President Trump’s controversial travel ban, sexual abuse scandal involving an employee, among others.
The climax of these set of unwelcomed developments in Uber’s world being the resignation of its Founding CEO - Travis Kalanick resulting from intense pressure from stakeholders for the chief to step-aside.
These issues has so often than not, placed the ride-sharing service among the likes of Microsoft Corporation, or Facebook with regards to other global business brands with similar regularity at courts over varying lawsuits. Perhaps the only difference is that, unlike Uber, the other known brands never really have their CEOs replaced.
For instance, despite a handful of suits or indictments against the social networking giant – Facebook (most of which even involve violation of individual privacy laws), Mark Zuckerberg still gets around it and retains his grip over the company.
The same went for Bill Gates at Microsoft until he willingly retired as CEO to focus on his foundation’s work.
However, in spite of these numerous legal and Public Relations (PR) battles she has found herself in, Uber’s business continues to grow significantly.
The latest on the company’s advancement is the launch of what is perhaps its first diversion from the ride-sharing business: UberEATS.
The food delivery service app was launched in Gurugram region of Delhi – India.
The company has partnered with over 300 restaurants in the area including Chaayos, Biryani by Kilo, Pita Pit among others. It had earlier in May launched the UberEATS in Mumbai and is said to have received commendations from the residents.
Commenting on the move by the company, Head of UberEATS in India, Bhavik Rathod said their “goal is to offer people what they want to eat, when they want to eat, in the quickest time possible".
He further noted that, “Globally, they have 45,000 restaurant partners in the six continents where UberEATS is presentâ€, although it’s obvious the food delivery app is still very much unknown even to Uber ride-sharing app users in Africa and particularly Ghana and Nigeria.
The app is separate from its older ride-sharing counterpart and has been designed specifically for food delivery.
It has such unique features as an in-built machine learning where consumers will get personalized food recommendations on the basis of their dietary preferences.Â
While the new food delivery app does a considerably great job in shifting attention from the company’s issues and boosting public confidence in its services: UberEATS is actually part of the Uber’s global expansion strategy that seeks to diversify its services options and limit the risk exposure for any of its service as it’s the case now with the ride-sharing arm of the company.
It is also expected to create thousands of new jobs across various countries in the world where it’s used.
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