Uber expands into alcohol delivery service

SAN FRANCISCO — Uber said Tuesday it has acquired alcohol delivery service Drizly, the latest purchase for the ridehailing company as it aggressively diversifies its business after a pandemic-related plummet in rides.

The companies announced the $1.1 billion deal in a joint news release, explaining that Drizly would maintain its marketplace but that it would eventually also appear in the Uber Eats app.

Uber said Drizly is the “leading on-demand alcohol marketplace in the United States” with a presence in more than 1,400 cities in a majority of U.S. states. It is designed to be “fully compliant” with local regulations in those places, Uber said.

The Washington Post reported last year that Uber was facilitating alcohol deliveries without ID’ing recipients, as couriers in some cases left to-go-cocktails at the door. Restaurants were taking advantage of new to-goalcohol rules in markets where Uber did not allow deliveries. Regulators from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control investigated and found that food delivery apps had been “routinely delivering alcoholic beverages to minors,” though it did not name specific services.

Since then, Uber has rolled out alcohol delivery further, enabling the app in new markets to ID recipients at the door.

Uber’s acquisition of Drizly aims to make alcohol delivery a permanent fixture on its app.

The deal follows an earlier pandemic-driven move to buy food delivery app Postmates in July, when the companies announced a $2.65 billion allstock deal that consolidated the app-based food delivery industry into three major players: DoorDash, Uber and Grubhub.