Demand for delivery is not slowing downDemand for delivery is not slowing down

Demand for delivery is not slowing down. In fact, it appears to be accelerating. 

Uber Eats on Wednesday reported gross bookings of $20.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2024, up from $18.7 billion in the previous period. It was the company’s largest quarter-over-quarter increase since the first quarter of 2021, in the thick of the pandemic.

The results were better than Uber was expecting, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during an earnings call. The growth was driven by a “step change” in signups for the company’s Uber One memberships, which jumped by 60% year over year, as well as growing demand for grocery and retail options on Uber Eats.

The company does not break down its bookings by segment, so there is no way of knowing how much restaurants contributed to the growth. 

Still, the results show that more consumers are choosing to have food, groceries and other products delivered to their home. 

That comes in spite of how expensive the service is and how price-conscious consumers have been in recent years. But Uber Eats has been taking steps to ease those prices.

One way is through Uber One, which gives members free delivery, 6% back on rides and other benefits for $9.99 a month. The program now has more than 30 million members. 

Uber Eats has also been encouraging restaurants and other businesses to invest in discounts and promotions on its marketplace. Khosrowshahi said that the number of merchant-funded offers is now at an all-time high. 

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“This is a really important initiative in terms of merchants being able to promote on the network and getting boosted in terms of their sort order for that promotion,” he said, according to a transcript on financial services site AlphaSense.

Selection is also a factor in Uber Eats’ growth. It now has more than 1 million active businesses on its marketplace, up 16% year over year.

The renewed momentum comes nearly five years after the pandemic shut down restaurant dining rooms and drove a surge of demand for food delivery. That demand moderated as pandemic restrictions eased, but delivery has still managed to grow quarter after quarter.

“We're very, very happy with the trends there,” Khosrowshahi said. “You saw delivery gross bookings accelerate quarter-on-quarter, and we think that's just more evidence that we've got a long, long runway here.”

Uber Eats rival DoorDash will report its fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 11.

This story was originally featured on Restaurant Business, a sister publication of Supermarket News.