Uber Eats expands to 100 new cities in Europe, Middle East, and Africa

Uber’s food delivery service Uber Eats is expanding to over 100 cities in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, TechCrunch reports. Specifically, the service will launch for the first time in Ireland, Egypt, Kenya, Ukraine, Romania, and the Czech Republic, along with previously announced markets around the globe, a spokesperson confirmed.

The service will launch in around 40 new cities in the UK and 35 new cities in France. Presently, Uber Eats operates in 200 cities around the globe, including some locations where Uber’s primary ride-hailing service has yet to launch.

Over the last year, Uber Eats has been a relative bright spot for the troubled ride-hail company. While Uber’s reputation took it on the chin, Uber Eats has prospered under Jason Droege, who runs Uber Everything, the portion of the business not focused on ride-hailing. The number of trips by Uber Eats drivers grew more than 24 times between March 2016 and March 2017, according to The New York Times.

A large portion of Uber Eats’ business is tied to its successful partnership with McDonalds, according to BuzzFeed. Uber Eats now delivers from nearly 7,000 McDonald’s locations in 20 different countries — or about 9 percent of all outlets on the platform.

The food delivery service is profitable in about a quarter of the markets in which it operates, according to the Financial Times. In some places, Uber Eats is doing better than its ride-hailing business. Droege told FT in an interview that Uber Eats had been “more successful than we thought.”