Will Uber Challenge Google?

Uber ups the game in same-day delivery, social media and mobile payments.

This past Friday, Uber the game-changer in the taxi/limo space conducted a special promotion across 144 cities in 38 countries and on 6 continents – selling and delivering ice cream!

Not only is this six-hour event a brilliant social media play (check it out at #UberIceCream) where people throughout the world added happy photos and praise for Uber with smiles on their faces, of course…it’s ice cream!, or proof that Uber will be on location on demand within minutes, this event adds a possible new dimension to the same day delivery business that is being led by Google Express and Amazon to a lesser degree. Let’s not forget that Uber is in the transportation business, while for Google it’s yet another extension for worldwide dominance to satisfy all consumer needs.

There’s also another little discussed element of the Uber ice cream community that may even become a challenge to Apple’s latest initiative…mobile payments. Uber’s email invite pointed out that “no cash needed – your order will be billed to your Uber account,” obvious for Uber users who are already comfortable with using (and trusting) Uber’s mobile payment system; possibly attracting others to the mobile payment fray. Perhaps this event also propels Uber as a proven and tested mobile payment provider ahead of the others (with the exception of Starbucks) who have been struggling to move mobile payments mainstream.

Food retailers may question the long term consumer desire for same day on demand delivery and whether it may just be a novelty or passing fad; we at The Lempert Report see it as changing the way shoppers will plan their meals, buy prepared foods, have a huge negative impact on both fast food and casual dining and a move to an almost daily acquisition of foods.