Uber is shutting down alcohol supply service Drizly, three years after the cab-hailing company acquired it for $1.1 billion. Drizly ran independently all this time, and Uber ultimately determined to shut it, as first reported by Axios.
On the time of the acquisition Uber deliberate to combine Drizly into Uber Eats, however by no means got here round to do it. The corporate mentioned that the Drizly model can be discontinued by March 2024.
“After three years of Drizly operating independently within the Uber family, we’ve decided to close the business and focus on our core Uber Eats strategy of helping consumers get almost anything – from food to groceries to alcohol – all on a single app,” Pierre Dimitri Gore-Coty, SVP of Supply at Uber, mentioned in an announcement to TechCrunch. “We’re grateful to the Drizly team for their many contributions to the growth of the BevAlc delivery category as the original industry pioneer.”
In 2020, Drizly disclosed that it was affected by a data breach that affected 2.5 million customers. Final yr, the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) ordered Drizly to delete all private knowledge that wasn’t required to supply service. Plus, it requested the alcohol supply service and CEO James Cory to implement a strong safety program.
The corporate goals the concentrate on alcohol supply via Uber Eats, the place it claims to have doubled the enterprise within the class globally. At the moment, Uber operates alcohol supply via Uber Eats in 35 U.S. states and 25 nations throughout the globe.
In 2020, earlier than the Drizly acquisition, Uber acquired Postmates for $2.65 billion in an all-stock deal.
Final yr, Uber Eats began exploring chatbot-based features to let customers discover restaurant offers and reorder favorites. The corporate additionally began permitting customers to order from two nearby stores at the same time.
