Uber Eats failed because it couldn't customise: Swiggy COO

“UberEats was a great brand and a great organisation,” said Vivek Sunder, COO, Swiggy at a Ficci Ladies Organisation event in Chennai. “Uber Eats suffered from being a global company. Global companies have scale and capability and also access to capital. While Indian companies have the ability to customise,” he said.

Weeks after UberEats was taken over by Zomato after it failed to make an impact in the food delivery segment, a senior Swiggy official said that the enterprise failed because it couldn't customise to Indian market.

UberEats was sold to Zomato last month for an enterprise value of nearly $350 million in an all stock deal. The American company’s Indian arm was tottering and Swiggy was learnt to be negotiating to acquire it, but dropped the idea, ostensibly due to a valuation mismatch. A PTI report had said that UberEats India business contributed just 3% of the global gross bookings but accounted for over 25% of adjusted EBITDA losses for the first three quarters of 2019.

“UberEats was a great brand and a great organisation,” said Vivek Sunder, COO, Swiggy at a Ficci Ladies Organisation event in Chennai. “Uber Eats suffered from being a global company. Global companies have scale and capability and also access to capital. While Indian companies have the ability to customise,” he said.

“It is not the fault of the venture,” he said citing, many MNC subsidiaries were struggling as their global headquarters could not visualise the customisation need. “For us in Swiggy, all I have to do is go down one floor, into my tech office and ask them to make the changes, while at the MNCs, it may be the 40th requirement which awaited the global HQ nod,” he said. At the end of it, if the management at HQ did not see merit in requirement they get junked. “The challenge Uber Eats faced is that of a glocal-local problem, he said.

A note put up at research firm Greyhound Research’s website quoted CEO Sanchit Vir Gogiahad as : “This deal is a reminder for global companies and startups that in many industries, they are going to need a local player partnership to (play) the market better.

Swiggy’s Sunder said the delivery platform was conducting a pilot project where food cooked by home makers would soon be available. “Swiggy Homely is not available in all zones. The pilot is currently on. We will bring the home chef on the platform and give home style meals to our customers,” he added.