Food delivery has been around for centuries but placing orders online did not become a thing until the Internet age.

The trend experienced exponential popularity during the pandemic, with food establishments closed and people stuck in their homes.

It is time to learn how many people use Uber Eats in 2024 and many interesting facts from the platform’s annual cravings report. 

How Many People Use Uber Eats in 2024?

Uber Eats is one of the most popular meal delivery service platforms today.

Uber Eats has 81 million users across its 6,000 serviceable cities worldwide.

In 2021, gross bookings rose to $51.6 billion from $30.2 billion in 2020. 

Due to the rise in patron count, the company’s annual revenue last year almost doubled to $8.3 million from $4.8 billion.

There are now 750,000 merchants operating on Uber Eats in 45 countries and growing.

What is Uber Eats?

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Uber Eats is the online food delivery service of Uber Technologies Inc.

It launched in 2014 to act as a middleman service between customers and restaurants for door-to-door takeouts.

Ordering on the app is straightforward–select a food establishment, add choices to your cart, check out, and pay the total with a small delivery charge.

It is that simple. More and more people are drawn to the service due to its convenience.

Uber Eats Market Share in the US

During the pandemic, meal delivery service sales in the United States surged to a record-high level. It hit a 17% YoY growth in May 2021.

Here is the percentage of Uber Eats users in the US relative to the overall market share:

• 2016 – 3%
• 2017 – 13%
• 2018 – 24%
• 2019 – 27%
• 2020 – 27%
• 2021 – 27%
• 2022 – 25%

App Store Ranking for Food & Drink Category

Uber Eats app can be downloaded in both App Store and Google Play Store and ranks third in the Food and Drink category on both platforms.

Here is the list of Food & Drink companies with the most number of downloads on Apple’s App Store in the US market:

1. DoorDash
2. McDonald’s
3. Uber Eats
4. Yelp
5. Grubhub

Google Play Store Ranking for Food & Drink Category

Here is the list of Food & Drink companies with the most number of downloads on Google’s Play Store in the US market:

1. McDonald’s
2. DoorDash
3. Uber Eats
4. Grubhub

It became the most-downloaded food delivery app during the second quarter of 2020 with 7.7 million downloads worldwide.

Number of Food Delivery Users by App

Here are the top five (5) delivery service applications worldwide and their respective user counts:

• Delivery Hero (parent company of foodpanda, PedidosYa, Glovo, etc.) – 115 million
• Just Eat – 99 million
• Uber Eats – 83 million
• Domino’s – 61 million
• Zomato – 40 million

Despite being the dominant player in the United States, DoorDash still has a lot to prove in the global arena. It currently ranks 7th, with 25 million global users.

Food Delivery App Downloads

Every service provider has its own mobile application which customers have to download before ordering.

Below is a list of food delivery apps and their download count:

• Delivery Hero – 81.6 million
• Uber Eats – 64.2 million
• DoorDash – 37.7 million
• Just Eat – 33.8 million
• Getir – 24.2 million

Annual Revenue

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An average customer recorded an annual Uber Eats spent of $141 in 2017. This grew to $220 in 2018. The uptrend in individual spending is the main driver behind revenue growth.

Below is a rundown on the annual revenue of Uber Eats from 2017 to 2021:

• 2017 – $600 million
• 2018 – $1.5 billion
• 2019 – $1.9 billion
• 2020 – $4.8 billion
• 2021 – $8.3 billion 

This data shows a record-breaking annual revenue growth beginning 2020 to 2021.

This is brought by the rise in food orders and the availability of new services such as grocery delivery during the pandemic.

Uber Eats Profitability

Despite the rise in annual revenue, Uber Eats is still not a profitable business. While it gets 20% to 30% of the total amount in every delivery, input costs remain high. 

On average, it costs Uber Eats $43.5 to deliver an order worth $40. Below is a rundown on the expenses per $40 delivery.

• Order amount: $40
• Net income of the restaurant: $33
• Driver incentive: $2.5
• Cost of order fulfillment: $3.5
• Marketing: $1.75
• Fixed cost: $2.7
• Total: $43.5
• Loss: $3.5

The platform is yet to make a profit in the coming years. Analysts are confident that it will become a moneymaking business soon.

This is as long as it retains a dominant market share in the food delivery service industry.

Average Preparation Time 

An Uber Eats order takes an average of 30 minutes from order taking to delivery. 

Uber Eats Cravings Report

Uber Eats Cravings Report is an annual update on the most popular and unique food delivery requests received over the past year.

It a written in a rather entertaining but informative way to keep readers hooked on the information.

According to the 2021 Uber Eats Annual Cravings report, its grocery delivery service has significantly risen and it now has 1,000+ grocery store partners.

The highest-grossing grocery item is banana, having sold 25,150 pounds of bananas in the US alone.

Extras

The words “extra soy sauce,” “extra spicy,” and “extra gravy” were on the rise in 2021. While requests such as “extra mayo,” “extra avocado,” and “extra pickle” declined.

Most Popular Cuisines on Uber Eats

Not all cuisines are the same–some are more appealing to the taste of the general population than others.

Here are the most popular cuisines in 2021:

• Mexican
• Burgers and Sandwiches
• Chinese 
• Indian
• Pizza
• Sushi

Other popular cuisines include Thai food, Mediterranean, and Vietnamese.

Most Popular Food Items on Uber Eats

Food trends come and go but staple items still sell like hotcakes any time of the year. Here are the most popular food items ordered by customers in 2021:

• French fries
• Pad Thai
• Garlic naan
• Soda
• Miso soup

Takeaway

The food delivery industry is expected to grow to $320 billion in 2029 from its current market value of $140 billion.

As a global market player, Uber Eats is expected to make big gains from this positive projection.

We hope you have enjoyed learning about the online food delivery industry, including Uber Eats demographics to satisfy their food cravings.

More bananas to come!

Sources