UberEATS leverages data for hyper-targeting in India

Anil Thakraney
Source: Event Reports, Consumer Insights & Analytics Conference, May
2018
Downloaded from WARC

UberEATS has used its own ride and customer data from Uber in India to target its marketing by
location, destination and time of day to grow orders.

Indian consumers spend eight times more on food than on transportation – the food industry in
India is worth US$50bn, and is growing at more than 10% year on year.
Because food delivery is so hyper-local in India – even down to the neighbourhood – broad
branding campaigns aren’t very effective or cost-efficient.
UberEATS differentiates its marketing, promotions and reach to its consumers by using
information from across the Uber business to make their products convenient and useful.
The company has been able to use Uber’s own ride data to better time and target its food
promotions around most common destinations, journey times, etc.

Indian consumers spend eight times more on food than on transportation, according to Manan Javeri, Head of
Launch at UberEATS in India. The food delivery service is now present in 14 Indian cities just one year after
launch.

Speaking at the Consumer Insights & Analytics 2018 conference held in Mumbai earlier this month, Javeri
explained how UberEATS is leveraging the Uber platform, ‘because everyone has used and experienced Uber’
to capitalise on Indians’ love of all things food.

“We can actually make a business that is eight times what our transportation business looks like…the food
industry in India is worth US$50bn, and it’s growing at more than 10% year on year…we are seeing the food
delivery industry transforming and moving at about 20% per annum, and we want to be a part of this growth,”
Javeri said.

India’s food delivery category is already a crowded space with established players like Zomato, Swiggy and a
number of hyper-local apps, not to speak of restaurants which consumers directly dial for food delivery. So how
can a newer player - a global brand - make an impact?
Javeri says UberEATS attempts to differentiate its marketing, promotions and reach to its consumers by having
relevant touch-points in the market, and using information from across the Uber business to make their products
convenient and useful.

“You can’t go with a broad, umbrella-marketing campaign because food is super hyper-local, not only to a city,
but even to neighbourhoods in a city. So it’s about Uber leveraging the rides business to start impacting the eats
business,” he said.

“For example, we know where all the Uber cabs are at 9AM in Mumbai. We know where they started from,
where they are going, whether they are on-trip or off-trip. That is how we monitor our systems from our control
room. So what we are trying to do is to derive insights from the rides business and action it on UberEATS,” he
explained.

“If you open your Uber app while on a trip, and if you scroll down, you will discover that you are able to order
your food while on the ride, and we already know your destination because Uber asks for the destination. So it
already knows where you are going, and it will pick up the restaurants which are located in the destination
where you are going, and how quickly can it be delivered to you from the time you are going to reach there,
because it already knows what time you will reach there. This is very relevant for commuters who use Uber
every day for workplace travel.”

Javeri went on to further list specific examples of how leveraging its ride and location data is helping UberEATS
enormously.

“The other use case, which is very impactful, is for people who fly. You land at the airport, we know you are at
the airport, and we know you have taken a ride to your hotel and maybe you are too lazy to step out for food. Or
you have landed after 9PM, and we know most flyers who land at that time do not have meals at home,” he
explained.

“This is super-relevant for us, and we have seen that a lot more conversions happen from this kind of
communication than just broader communication, in fact, 12 times more. It’s like texting you at any point of time
versus when you’re taking an airport ride after 9PM. So it’s about relevance.”

Another example Javeri gave was from Uber’s experience in Hyderabad, where the company has been able to
use ride data to better time and target its promotions.

“There is a whole bunch of people who live in the old Hyderabad city, and they work in the high-tech area,
which is located on the north-west side of the city, and it takes about an hour to get there. Now if this is how a
city is structured, imagine if I have to send a communication about eating. Should it be about restaurants in the
old city or should it be about restaurants in the high-tech area? If I sent you for both, it will be spam,” Javeri
explained.

“With this data, we now know what location is priority for you and at what time of the day. (UberEATS) would
send you restaurants that are hyper-local to the tech areas at day time, and for those in the old city during the
night time, and that makes it more relevant and leads to better conversions. We are not only hyper-local, we are
also time-related.”

Another use case Javeri cited was the knowledge of a customer’s riding preference.

“If you are a commuter who takes a lot of pool rides (Uber’s ride-share option) versus a commuter who
sometimes takes pool rides and sometimes takes UberX on the weekends because you would go out with the
family, then based on your lifestyle choices we can bundle food and rides together,” he said.

“We offer five Uber rides and five meals at a price off. A pool user is offered everyday deals, and the weekend
user would want to indulge more, so a larger basket size of restaurants is offered to them. This has now become
more relevant because we get a much more targeted reach and can offer much more targeted promotions to our
riders, and now eaters,” he added.

“For example, we have seen Uber usage increase on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings, so we know
people are stepping out for leisure or entertainment, and we try and translate that into food preferences, that’s
the link we are working on.”

The company is also partnering with popular restaurants in various areas.

“That then helps our restaurant partners and our eaters, it’s a win-win for all, in the next 12 months we will link
this even further.”

Hyper-targeting and leveraging its own data has had a demonstrably positive effective on the company in its first
year after launch.

“Over the last 12 months, we have had 50 million people who tried Uber in India. And if we have been able to
get 10 million of these to try the UberEATS platform, that is massive and a big win for us. But this is just the
beginning, in the next three or four years we will be building more robust tools to track insights and not just
translate from rides to eats, but also from eats to rides.”

About the author

Anil Thakraney
Freelance writer

Anil Thakraney is a Mumbai-based freelance writer and consultant with two decades experience covering the
Indian advertising industry. He is WARC's reporter based in India.

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