Fans of the most popular dog-themed cryptocurrencies have a new place to spend their crypto, with Uber Eats now accepting Shiba Inu and Dogecoin.
Uber Eats doesn’t directly accept any crypto, but it does via its integration with the BitPay service. BitPay made the announcement via a blog post.
BitPay offers a variety of options for purchasing prepaid gift cards with crypto. Gift cards can be bought with cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Litecoin (LTC), XRP (XRP), Dai (DAI), Wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), Gemini USD (GUSD), USD Coin (USDC), and Binance USD (BUSD).
Despite starting as a meme, Dogecoin has become a major player in the crypto market. Shiba Inu, the “Dogecoin killer,” has similarly captured the hearts and wallets of users.
BitPay’s expanded support for both coins will make it much easier to use them for everyday purchases.
“Uber built a very anti-fragile business in regards to having the Eats business and having the Rides business,” says early Uber investor Jason Calacanis. “When the Ride’s business went down that kind of indicates people are staying home. When they stay home they use Uber Eats and increasingly Drizly, Cornershop, and Postmates. Watching the Uber team take on this challenge of the pandemic year has been really impressive.”
Early Uber investor Jason Calacanis says that unlike Lyft, Uber built a very anti-fragile business with the combination of Eats and Rides and has become relentlessly focused:
Uber Built A Very Anti-Fragile Business
What we’re really going to see here is that Uber built a very anti-fragile business in regards to having the Eats business and having the Rides business. When the Ride’s business went down that kind of indicates people are staying home. When they stay home they use Uber Eats and increasingly Drizly, Cornershop, and Postmates. People are ordering groceries. Watching the Uber team take on this challenge of the pandemic year has been really impressive.
It reminds me a lot of Disney and how they got focused around Disney+ as the center of the organization. They looked at what was happening in the pandemic and said parks are great, merch is great, movies are great, let’s just put everything into Disney+ and accelerate that. Look what happened to that company. I’ve got to give Dara Khosrowshahi a lot of credit. He got rid of a lot of the noise like self-driving cars which are a multi-decade kind of vision. He sold off the places where they weren’t going to be in first, second, or even third place. He did JVs and sold off those businesses like Russia and China, etc. That’s well documented.
The Space Can’t Have 50 Players Losing Money
They found a new really inspiring footing which is if Amazon is two-day delivery going to one-day, Uber’s is one-hour delivery going to 10-minute delivery. That is Travis Kalanick’s original vision for Uber. When I met with him when he was building the company and I was the third or fourth investor his vision was this is a logistic company. We took atoms in the world made them bits on the internet. Now we’re going to take bits on your phone, an app, and we’re going to move atoms in the real world. That was his original pitch. Here we are in decade two where I’m still own the same shares I’ve had since I bought them for a penny or whatever back in 2008 or 2009. I remain super bullish. I have a huge position in Uber and I’m going to hold it for the next decade.
It’s fairly obvious that there are acquisitions and consolidation that need to happen in the space in order for it to be profitable. The space can’t have 50 players losing money. We’ve watched Lyft, Postmates, Doordash, and everybody, say that we’re going to have to charge what this product is worth. We’re going to have to stop burning money. There’s no free VC money. The public markets are not down with lose money forever and grow. I think we found a happy medium here between what public market investors want, profits, and what private market investors want, growth.
Uber Has Become Relentlessly Focused
I think Dara has done an exceptional job. Some things will come from acquisitions but most of it has to be just relentless execution and focus. That is the inspiring part of what happened here. Uber has become relentlessly focused. Things that were coming in 10 or 20 years like self-driving in all likelihood will be a commodity business. In 10 or 20 years there’ll be five companies who have that technology. VTOLs are very fascinating and very interesting, but again that’s probably seven, eight, nine, or ten years off as a very niche product.
Uber Built A Very Anti-Fragile Business, Says Jason Calacanis
Uber has announced a major acceleration of its grocery delivery service, now available in more than 400 cities and towns in the US to Uber and Uber Eats customers.
The global pandemic saw a dramatically increased demand for grocery delivery services, demand Uber and Uber Eats has benefited from. The company’s recent expansion is its first major one in the US, and more than doubles its footprint. Part of the expansion is a 1,200-store partnership with the Albertsons grocery chain. Albertsons also includes, Safeway, ACME, Jewel-Osco, Randalls and Tom Thumb.
“This past year has been one of incredible growth for grocery delivery,” Raj Beri, Uber’s Global Head of Grocery and New Verticals “Today nearly 3 million consumers order groceries and other essentials each month through Uber and we’re just getting started. By adding thousands of beloved grocers to our selection this year, we are fast-tracking our efforts to help Americans get everything they need from their favorite supermarket, delivered to their doorsteps.”
“The Uber Eats business continues to grow at unprecedented rates,” says Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. “Revenue has almost tripled year on year. That business continues to accelerate. It looks like the Eats business is sticky. I wouldn’t count on the growth rates we are having now post-pandemic. However, I do think that you are going to have big growth rates off of a much larger base as a result of everything that has happened.”
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says that Uber Eats is growing at unprecedented rates during the pandemic and he expects the business to do well post-pandemic as well:
Uber Eats Growing At Unprecedented Rate
On the Uber Eats side, it is an entirely different story where the business continues to grow at unprecedented rates. Revenue has almost tripled year on year. That business continues to accelerate. When we look at Eats we are seeing some great trends. The monthly actives on Eats are up 70% on a year on year basis. The trips are up 110% on a year on year basis. New orders, orders per eater, or basket sizes, all of these trends are up double-digit.
We’ve taken a look at Eats’ performance in markets that are opening up such as New York City and we haven’t seen any kind of performance degradation in Eats. What that suggests to us is that there is a whole new class of consumer that’s experiencing the delight of being able to pick anything and have it delivered within 30 minutes and eat what you want how you want it. It looks like the Eats business is sticky. I wouldn’t count on the growth rates we are having now post-pandemic. However, I do think that you are going to have big growth rates off of a much larger base as a result of everything that has happened.
As Cities Open Up Uber Opens Up
It really is impossible to tell when the mobility business can come back. It depends entirely on the health situation on the ground. With markets that are opening up faster because of the health situation or the society, things are coming back. For example, we looked in New York City where the counts have been down relative to the rest of the country and in just October our volumes were 63% of pre-pandemic levels. This is materially higher than they were in the rest of the nation.
You have week-day use cases of the service outside of commute that is now at pre-pandemic levels or higher. As cities open up Uber opens up as well. We actually think that we can be a beneficiary of certain trends that we’re seeing.
We have invested in safety such as digital mask verification. We also have the No Mask No Rides advertising campaigns. People are feeling safer using Uber. Our reliability and predictability are absolutely unrivaled. While we look at share and we always want to make sure that we are competitive really what we focus on is the reliability of the service and safety of our drivers and hopefully coming back as the health situation improves.
Vaccine Could Radically Improve Bookings
There is a pretty consistent improvement in the mobility business as you go month to month to month. This is one of the benefits of having a truly global business. Within that steady improvement, there are all sorts of ups and downs. Hong Kong has had some openings and closings. Obviously, Europe is now going through another shutdown. US case counts are moving up. The individual curves are not smooth. But when you look at our global portfolio it smooths out.
We are seeing a month to month improvement. For example, if you look at our last quarter overall gross bookings were down 50%. In September, the last month of the quarter, they were down only 44%. You just see this kind of consistent improvement. We think that the consistent improvement will continue into next year. We think a vaccine could radically improve the slope of that improvement.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Says ‘Eats’ Growing At Unprecedented Rate
If there was a time to lean into delivery, this is the time. We’re going to be the global leader in that business. We’re going to expand beyond food into other categories such as groceries and pharmacy, essentially powering world commerce.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi discusses how Uber Eats is going to ‘essentially power world commerce’ in a Zoom call with the Wall Street Journal:
If there was a time to lean into delivery, this is the time,” We’re going to be the global leader in that business. We’re going to expand beyond food into other categories such as groceries and pharmacy, essentially powering world commerce.
The food delivery business is profitable in certain countries. For example, two of our top five international markets are profitable today and were profitable last quarter. The profitability really depends on how hard we are leaning in toward expanding supply and acquiring customers. The perspective that we have on this business is that even though it’s growing it’s actually very early in its development.
For example, Japan is a huge market potential for us and one of our leading growth markets. Less than ten percent of restaurants in Japan are signed up to use Uber Eats as a delivery service. When you have a situation where your penetration is ten percent of the ultimate market size you lean in as a company.
We are fortunate in that we’ve got very strong balance sheets, over $7 billion in cash and available capital. That allows us to lean into certain businesses. If there was a time to lean into delivery, this is the time. We’re going to be the global leader in that business. We’re going to expand beyond food into other categories such as groceries and pharmacy, essentially powering world commerce.
In a call to investors, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said the company is losing significant business because of the coronavirus, but has enough funds on hand.
According to Business Insider, Khosrowshahi told investors the hardest hit areas have seen a 60-70% decline in rides, and that could go as high as 80% for the year. In spite of that, the CEO said the company has $10 billion in unrestricted cash.
“We have plenty of liquidity on the books which positions us to come out of this crisis strong and capable,” Khosrowshahi said.
Another bright spot is Uber Eats, the company’s food delivery service. As people forgo restaurants, Uber Eats is seeing growth in even the worst hit areas. Between the news that Uber has enough cash to survive the crisis, and news its food delivery service is growing, the company’s stock was up as much as 43% Thursday.
Uber should serve as an example for other companies. Between having enough cash to weather a storm, and diversifying into a disruptive business, the company seems well-positioned to survive any temporary hit to its core business.
“Scale is the primary driver toward profitability,” says Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. “It’s getting big. We’ve got over a billion rides per quarter and we’ve got trips growing at 35 percent on a year on year basis. It’s a combination of growing top-line over 35 percent, technology innovation to delight the customer and take costs down at the same time, and then good old fashioned efficiency, making sure that our corporate costs don’t grow as fast as our revenue. All of those together give you a formula to get to profitability.”
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber Technologies Inc., discusses how Uber can continue to be transformational and ultimately be profitable in an interview on Bloomberg Technology:
Uber Can Continue To Be Transformational
We have resolved all of the governance conflicts that the company had. There were many legal issues that the company was involved with. We have SoftBank as a partner and you want SoftBank to be behind you and a big partner and a big investor. We have a great investor base. We’ve taken the company public and company’s revenue, gross bookings, have grown 75 percent since I joined. We now have a path to profitability. So while we’ve had bumps on the road, and every adventure has bumps on the road, I like where we are. I especially like the position we are in now for the next two years.
I think Uber (can continue to be transformational over the next decade). Really what Uber has done is brought transportation and opportunity at this point to what we believe is just a small segment of the population. We’ve got over four million driver-partners all over the world which is a huge number. It is unparalleled. But we want Uber to be available to everybody. What we are doing now is going into the next step of introducing other transportation choices to Uber. We’ve always gone with pool, but for example, we are testing busses in Cairo now to even bring the price of Uber down to the next level, a dollar or a buck fifty, etc.
The Rideshare Business Itself Is Turning Quite Profitable
We are introducing bikes and scooters for personal electric mobility. Essentially, anyway that you want to get around your city we are going to be there for you. It will be mostly Uber goods but we will also have other third parties such as transit, such as one of our partners Lime as well. Any way that you want to get around we want Uber to be there. And if you want food, if you want even local commerce which I think we will power or even Uber Eats or some of our other services will be there for you as well.
If you look at our rideshare business, it covered our overhead less than about $100 million. The rideshare business itself is turning quite profitable. We believe that the profits in the rideshare business are not only going to grow top-line but we believe we are going to grow the bottom-line as well. Then there are other businesses, Eats, autonomous, freight, etc. These are extraordinary opportunities that we are funding. I do believe that we are going to prove to our investors that we can take on a serial basis big parts of our business, turn them profitable, and use those parts of our business to fund investments in other areas.
Our Formula To Profitability
I’m very confident that Uber can be profitable. I think the losses that we reported, it was a $5 billion loss from an accounting perspective. If you live in an accounting world that’s a big loss. I live in the real world. Actually, in the real world or EBITDA losses of $656 million were lower than Q1 and were on a good path in terms of our EBITDA losses as well. None of this is going to be easy. All of this is going to take great execution from all of our teams, marketing, technology, etc. We are going to be demanding our employees to be doing even more with less and to execute incredibly effectively in order for us to grow the top-line and the bottom-line as well.
Scale (is the primary driver toward profitability). It’s getting big. We’ve got over a billion rides per quarter and we’ve got trips growing at 35 percent on a year on year basis. We think we can use technology to be much more efficient. For example, instead of you now having to email a call center agent or call a call center agent if you have issues, you can just do it in the app. These are technology innovations that allow customers to have a better experience and at the same time they bring down costs. It’s a combination of growing top-line over 35 percent, technology innovation to delight the customer and take costs down at the same time, and then good old fashioned efficiency, making sure that our corporate costs don’t grow as fast as our revenue. All of those together give you a formula to get to profitability.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: Our Formula To Profitability
“Virtual restaurants is a very interesting initiative,” says Uber Eats EMEA head Rodrigo Arevalo. “Basically by leveraging the data on our platform, we can partner with other restaurants in order to cuisine types that only exist on food delivery platforms. If there is not a restaurant in a certain neighborhood we will partner with restaurants to make that happen. In the UK we are already doing 200 virtual restaurants and we are expanding throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.”
Rodrigo Arevalo, head of EMEA at Uber Eats, discusses how virtual restaurants are helping power Uber Eats Growth in an interview on Bloomberg:
Virtual Restaurants Helping Power Uber Eats Growth
Virtual restaurants is a very interesting initiative. Basically, by leveraging the data on our platform we can partner with other restaurants in order to cuisine types that only exist on food delivery platforms. That has two benefits. The first one is that it helps restaurants utilize their kitchens a lot more. The second one is that it increases their revenue on their top line. It’s a very interesting initiative to provide more choice and to increase business for restaurants.
If there is not a restaurant in a certain neighborhood we will partner with restaurants to make that happen. In the UK we are already doing 200 virtual restaurants and we are expanding throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It’s a type of local exercise that we are trying to tack on. It’s going really well and we’re excited about that.
Uber East Demonstrates the Potential of Uber’s Logistics Platform
Uber Eats fits into Uber’s overall strategy and portfolio in the way that it demonstrates the potential of Uber’s logistics platform. Just in three and a half years, we’ve been able to build a multi-billion dollar business and today we are already the biggest food delivery app outside of China. It’s all about the logistics network that we have built and how we can leverage the potential of that platform.
It’s about focus for us. We want to make sure that we deliver on the plan, deliver on the vision that (Uber CEO) Dara Khosrowshahi has set for the company. Focus is basically three pillars for Uber Eats. The first one is restaurant selection, providing consumers choice. The second one is customer experience for eaters, for restaurants, and for delivery partners. The third one is underpinning that with great technology and a great product that people would love to use every single day.
Uber Eats Partners With 220,000 Restaurants Globally
We partner today with 220,000 restaurants globally and there is a vast variety of selection from every kind of meal that you would like; comfort food to the healthiest options such as vegan, salads, etc. We believe selection. We believe in consumer choice. We want to make sure that we provide all of those options to them. We very much focus on providing that information, providing those options, and making sure that consumers make an informed choice.
When it comes to packaging we already partner with several companies that provide sustainable packaging. Given our platform, particularly in the UK, we already look for ways to facilitate sustainable packaging for restaurant partners, making sure we do our part in that sense.
Virtual Restaurants Helping Power Uber Eats Growth – Uber Eats EMEA head Rodrigo Arevalo
Based on a successful delivery trial in China via Alibaba and Uber Eats in Miami, Starbucks has announced that they are adding delivery nationwide. Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer says they are still looking at the total cost of delivery very “carefully” but they are emboldened by the higher average sale with delivery orders.
Starbucks Delivery via Uber Eats Expanding Nationwide
We’ve had a great trial in Miami and we chose Miami because we know what the temperatures are in Miami. We’ve seen great drink consistency. We’ve seen really good leverage on the ticket, so we’re seeing both food and beverages being ordered. We’re seeing a much larger ticket when we see a delivery from Starbucks.
We’re really pleased that we’re doing this partnership with Uber. We’re learning a lot about technology integration and that’s the real result here, just really making sure that the technology comes together and then we deliver the best product for the customer.
The question around is this a profitable opportunity for us is one of the things that we’re evaluating because it does cost more to deliver coffee. But we are seeing an expanded ticket and that average ticket is really what we need to see happen as we approach delivery. We’re encouraged right now but we’re actually monitoring that very carefully.
Learned From the Alibaba Partnership in China
We’re using a lot of the learnings from China in terms of things like packaging. Not only is it an automobile delivery, we’re seeing that it’s bicycle delivery as well. So we’re understanding that very well. We’re also understanding what is the offering? Should it be the full menu and what dreams do best when they have to be delivered?
State of the Starbucks Economy
What we’re seeing right now is that something like a Starbucks cup of coffee which some assume is an affordable luxury, we’re really comfortable right now. I will tell you one thing about our holiday season that we’re in right now. We learned a lot from what we did last year and we’re really encouraged by the reusable red cup that we entered this year.
We’re doing marketing campaigns and every time we see the Starbucks name mentioned in media we get a pop in our performance. So we’re really pleased with what we’re seeing and we’re a little bit less concerned with the turndown that everyone’s talking about.
When you look at what Starbucks is doing particularly in China and in the US is that we’re still opening new stores. In China, there is still a lot of addressable market for us to participate in. You’ll see us be pretty bullish on the work that we’re doing with new stores and we’re adding delivery which is all incremental business. At this time there’s opportunity for us to continue to grow but we’re watching carefully some other things that are happening globally.
Beverage Innovation is Our Biggest Driver of Growth
The biggest driver of growth for us going forward will be our beverage innovation. You saw us earlier this year introduce a new espresso. You’ll see us bring more of our learnings from our roasteries in terms of what can happen with our beverage innovation. You’ll see us talk more about our Cold Platform, things like our Nitro Cold Brew, and then some of our other beverages that are really doing well for us right now.
