UberEats, Amazon Vying for Global Food Delivery Domination

Who will be the first food delivery company to service Antarctica? The way things are headed, probably UberEats.

The delivery service will invade 22 new countries (yes, twenty-two) in the “near future,” Reuters reports. The driver-on-demand app’s delivery arm currently serves 33 cities in six countries — 27 of those in the U.S. — and will hit eight new international cities by the end of this year, including Dubai and Johannesburg; per Fortune, other cities to follow will include Mexico City, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Jakarta, Madrid, and Moscow.

UberEats’ arrival in new cities puts major pressure on local delivery services to either step up their game or be pushed out, as the company’s established driver fleets and massive well of resources means it can often deliver food faster and cheaper than rivals.

Meanwhile, while not quite yet at the scale of UberEats, fellow tech giant Amazon has been making its own push into the international food delivery market: Earlier this month it expanded its restaurant delivery service into London, its first market outside the U.S. Amazon is also reportedly considering investing in a food delivery startup in India, which could be another gigantic market for the e-commerce behemoth.

But UberEats and Amazon have plenty of stiff competition when it comes to delivering food across the globe, rather than people or books and household goods: One major international player is Deliveroo, a London-based delivery company that serves more than 80 cities across 12 countries including Australia, France, the United Arab Emirates, and the UK; it just raised another $275 million and is now estimated to be worth as much as $1 billion.

• Uber Launches Global Assault on Food Delivery Market [Reuters]
• The Food Delivery Sector Isn’t Slowing Down Anytime Soon [E]
• More Delivery Coverage [E]