Amazon may buy Uber Eats India business, plans to include food delivery to prime app

Amazon India is holding talks for a potential buyout of the local unit of food order and delivery platform Uber Eats. Meanwhile, the discussions are reportedly in their early stages where the two sides are possibly looking to explore a strategic alliance.

The e-commerce major is keen on entering the food delivery business in India to include it in its list of services it offers in the country, particularly through its prime membership plan, sources in the know told the Business Standard.

"People order almost daily from a Zomato or a Swiggy. These apps enjoy immense client stickability. Amazon believes this could be a great add-on to its membership plan," a source told the news daily.

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Amazon believes that the food delivery business can restore customers to its Prime app more frequently than shopping for fashion, electronics or grocery. As per the market reports, the e-commerce giant's prime membership plan has logged more than 10 million users. Furthermore, with the addition of food deliver segment to Amazon's Prime app will help add daily users to it as well as boost the number of transactions, the report said.

Meanwhile, Uber Eats is likely to consider a valuation of $300 million, the report added. Earlier, Swiggy was reportedly in talks with Uber Eats for a possible acquisition but the two companies could not conclude the deal over the issue of valuation and other concerns.

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Uber Eats has time and again face still competition from rivals such as Swiggy and Zomato in India. Where Swiggy wans to make it big in the grocery delivery space, Zomato is relying on its membership programme Zomato Gold to take boost its growth.

As per the industry estimates, Swiggy last year had delivered around 8,00,000 orders a day while Zomato came a close second at 6,50,000. Whereas, Uber Eats lagged behind where it could manage between 1,50,000 and 2,00,000 orders per day.

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