Should Uber Eats be a different app from Uber Rides?

Question

Should Uber Eats be a different app from Uber Rides?

Asked at Uber over a year ago

2.9k views

& 1 other company

Asked at

& 1 other company

2.9k views

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productmanager1644 · Answer 1 · 2021-02-02T04:29:13+0000

CLARIFY:
1. Is this strategy market specific? Assume no.
2. Would this change be to the existing app or for future users? Assume my choice. Assume it would affect all future users. Current users may be forced to download the second app if they want to upgrade it.
3. Is there a goal that the company has in mind by splitting the apps? Assume my choice.
UBER'S MISSION: Uber's goal is to provide premier transportation to the world. It initially focused on ride sharing and individual ride requests as its focus. Food delivery expands upon its transportation mission.
BACKGROUND ON UBER RIDES AND UBER EATS: Currently, both services are mainly used on mobile devices and are in a single app.
1. UBER RIDES: Uber Rides allows a user to request a ride. Prior to COVID, users could share rides or request individual ones for a higher cost. The type of car, the number of riders and the distance changes the fee.
2. UBER EATS: Uber Eats is the expanded food delivery service on the platform. A user requests food delivery from a local restaurant and Uber delivers it by car, scooter, bike, etc.
USERS: At a very high level, we can divide the Uber users into Buyers and Service Providers. For this strategy, I will focus on the Buyers.
1. Type of User Uber Rides Uber Eats
  Buyer Ride Requester Food Orderer
  Service Provider Driver Food Delivery
STRATEGIC CHOICES: There are two options. Either we can keep all service functionality in a single app as the current state is now or we can split the app into two services. (Note, there is also Uber Grocery, which I note later.)

EVALUATE STRATEGIC CHOICES: I will evaluate both options from the point of view of the Buyer (i.e. the Ride Requestor or the Food Orderer) and Uber.

BUYER EVALUATION: From a Buyer perspective, it is clear that it is a simpler and better experience overall for a single app experience.

Theme	1 App	2 Apps
Convenience / Downloads	High: Simple to download 1 app	Low: Great inconvenience to download 2 apps. If Uber expands its service, it may need to create a third app, etc. (For example, would Uber Groceries become a third app.).
Identity / Account Management	High: User can manage profile and account in single space.	Medium: Unless Uber ensures that identity and profiles are linked, user may potentially have to manage separate accounts, like updating payment method.
User Experience	High: Easy for the user to see all services in single place and choose which to use.	Medium: User has to bounce back and forth between apps depending on what they want to do. Great inconvenience.
UI	High: Current state is very simple with 3 easy options: Rides, Eats and Grocery. Not very confusing.	High: Clear distinction between apps as to meet user needs.
Engagement	High: User is more likely to engage in other services for Uber if they see options in front of them. Ex, I wanted a ride. I see there's delivery. Maybe I'll order food later.	Low: User may only download 1 app. Less likely to be reminded of other services.
Memory	Medium: The more services in the app, the larger the download but likely requires less memory than 2 apps.	Low: Downloading two apps uses more memory for the user overall. (There may be the case where a single app with a lot of service v. 2 simple apps may actually take less memory.)

UBER EVALUATION: Although there are technical limitations to be considered with having 1 app, overall, it is in Uber's best interest to have a single app due to higher revenue potential and lower cost.

Theme	1 App	2 Apps
Brand Recognition	High: Customers will have positive view of Uber because they see it offers many services.	Medium: Customers will have a limited view of what Uber offers. They may not download both apps / may not be aware of its other services.
Cross Sell / Revenue	High: Much easier to cross sell services in single space.	Low: Much more difficult to cross sell because services are in different apps. Even if there are notifications for services on 1 app for another, the likelihood of conversion is likely lower.
Tech Upgrades	Medium: Service upgrades require full upgrade of entire app. Upgrades must be compatible across all services.	High: Easier to upgrade individual service on 1 app. Less concern about service upgrade for 1 functionality negatively affecting another.
Capabilities / Storage	Low: Single app may have limitations on storage / capabilities.	High: 2 apps allows for more capability builds.
Metrics / Data	High: Identity of customers are connected. Easy to understand customer metrics (ex. this rider also ordered food 5x this month).	Medium: Uber needs to ensure user identities are connected. Metrics need to be measured in a similar way to see customer insights.
Cost	High: Resources are streamlined to focus on 1 app.	Low: More costly to have teams managing 2 apps (ex. Tech resources, Product Owners, etc.). If Uber expands services, would it need to invest in more resources for individual apps (ex. where does Uber Groceries sit - another app, etc.)?

SUMMARY: Given both options, it is clear based on the evaluation Uber should keep its services in a single app for a better user experience and overall revenue benefit / cost savings for the company. In the future, if Uber expands its services so greatly that the UI of its app would become cluttered or confusing and a single app may not have capability to host all its services, then it should consider another app creation.

Chetan Channa · Answer 2 · 2020-01-21T05:16:09+0000

Here's the most organized way I can think of to answer this product strategy question.

First, let's list out the key goals for both the businesses & we will write down the impact of each of these strategies on these metrics.

Create Awareness
Acquire Users
Retain Users
Earn Revenue
Decrease Costs
Ease of development & use
Strategy

To evaluate, we will look at Pros & Cons from business perspective of both these strategies against the goals.

Goal	Advantages of having one App	Advantages of having different Apps
Create Awareness	Easier to create awareness of Uber eats via much used & liked Uber cab service.
Acquire Users	Easier to acquire users since there is only one app & cross-sell the services
Retain Users	Retention fo combined apps would be higher than different individual apps
Earn Revenue	Cross-selling can be done to increase revenue per user
Decrease Costs	Will lead to a decrease in marketing & customer acquisition cost as we need to market just one app
Convenience & Ease of use		Will make development a little easier as two different apps can be managed separately. 2 businesses have to be in sync always in terms of feature & flows or else app may look disjointed.
Convenience & Ease of use	The app download is a huge friction point for a user & having one app reduces that friction
Convenience & Ease of use	Convenience to the user as he or she can use the same wallet etc and don't need to set up different apps
Convenience & Ease of use		App size will keep on increasing even if the users don't want Uber Eats/. With different apps, app size can be controlled
Strategy		ese are 2 entirely different needs & requirements so from 'user needs' point of view the strategy doesn't align

Recommendation

Basis above data, I believe both Uber Eats & Uber Rides should be one app since advantages far outweigh disadvantages. Moreover, disadvantages can be handled with right interventions. While from user point of view it, this might look out of sync but concept of super app is not new & with the right UI we can make uber ride & uber eats user ‘oblivious’ to one another. Other key issue is business & development alignment which I believe can be handled with correct org structure and team setup. With respect to app size, I believe this is a challenge but with faster internet, availability of Wifi, cheaper internet, this is not going to be a huge challenge for Uber.

jawade · Answer 3 · 2020-07-16T15:21:50+0000

@bijan Can you list factors that one should consider while deciding whether it require one app or different apps?

ashishkatariya2 · Answer 4 · 2020-01-15T07:28:09+0000

Yes these sould be different :

Combining these two will increase app size (MB) and many of users will stop downloading and this will impact the business because still in India people many people use basic phone here basic phone which just cost 4000- 5000 INR which has less storage space, if they both are together users will stop installing.
let's say a user want's to book a ride on uber app, Now here if user sees frontend of uber eats any image of uber eats it makes no sense to him he needs to skip this and navigate to booking a cab this will lead to irritating experience for end user.
If there is any bug in the app or they are implementing a new functionality here to fix this bug it will take more time roll back the app and re-deploy this back to production will be time consuming.
Uber eats : if you open this app you just need to enter your pincode/ locality area and food will be delivered.
Uber cab : here we need to enter your pick up location and drop location to book a cab.

So these both the apps have different functionality/business, hence I think these shouldnot be merged.

Hope I have answered your question.

Type of User	Uber Rides	Uber Eats
Buyer	Ride Requester	Food Orderer
Service Provider	Driver	Food Delivery