UBER EATS EXPANDS INTO DELIVERING MEDICINES

UBER EATS’ South African unit yesterday expanded its delivery offerings, launching an app- based over- the- counter medicines service as it seeks to claw market share in the fast- growing online shopping sector in Africa’s most industrialised economy. Uber Eats, a unit of US ridehailing service Uber Technologies, already has a lion’s share in South Africa’s $ 600 million ( about R10 billion) fooddispatching market. The equally lucrative medicines delivery market is controlled by Clicks and Dis- Chem, which offered delivery services long before Covid- 19 spurred a shift to online shopping. Analysts say such “first movers”, including Naspers- owned Takealot, have a natural advantage over newcomers, particularly with users increasingly seeking to use fewer smartphone applications to do more things. But Uber Eats is banking on a “marketplace” strategy – combining ride- hailing and grocery deliveries and other services on a single mobile phone app that already has more than 2 million users in the country, it said in a statement. Its latest foray in the delivery sector is in partnership with Medicare, which operates more than 50 clinics and pharmacies around the country, and will allow its app users to purchase over- thecounter medication. “The nationwide lockdown and restriction in movement created an immediate need to accelerate our business in increasing the accessibility to daily essentials,” the general manager of Uber Eats South Africa, Shane Austin, told Reuters. “Which is part of the reason our focus has been towards on- boarding various other merchants onto the app, aside from just restaurants.” In its latest Digital Market Outlook, information portal Statista predicted that South Africa’s e- commerce market would see annual compound growth of 11 percent up to 2024, with the number of online shoppers growing to nearly 37 million from about 25 million currently. | Reuters