🍕 Food Delivery

• DoorDash Expands from Delivery to Dining Reservations: DoorDash has launched an in-app feature that allows users to book tables directly with partner restaurants, moving beyond its core delivery business. The Takeaway 👀 This highlights the platform’s shift toward becoming a holistic dining ecosystem, capturing a larger share of total restaurant spend and demonstrating that platform expansion beyond logistics is crucial for revenue growth.
• Grubhub Pilots Self-Driving Robot Delivery: Grubhub Pilots Self-Driving Robot Delivery. The Takeaway 👀 Investing in autonomous delivery is a strategic move to reduce long-term operational costs and address driver shortages, proving that last-mile automation is the next frontier for platform profitability.

📱  E-Commerce

• Instacart Transforms into a Grocer Operating System: Instacart is expanding its enterprise suite to provide independent grocers with comprehensive in-store and online e-commerce technology. The Takeaway 👀 By becoming a foundational technology provider, Instacart is diversifying its revenue beyond marketplace transactions and establishing itself as an essential operating system for the entire grocery industry.
• Amazon UAE Accelerates to ‘Delivery in Minutes’: Amazon has launched “Amazon Now” in the UAE, offering ultra-fast delivery in minutes for essentials and two-hour delivery for thousands of products. The Takeaway 👀 Amazon’s aggressive investment in rapid urban delivery signals that e-commerce platforms are quickly converging with quick commerce standards, making ultra-fast logistics an essential requirement for high-frequency purchases.

Partner Spotlight

Elevating Rider Experience Through Direct Research with Eternis

We recently visited one of our most strategic Polish partners, Eternis – a key authorized fleet and financial partner for Uber Eats riders in the region—to run a crucial rider experience research focus group.

This engagement went beyond logistics; it was about gathering intellectual capital to refine the ecosystem.

• The Challenge: To move beyond assumptions and gain direct, qualitative insights into rider preferences, gear functionality, and the real-world operational experiences to inform better product development.

• The Boolanga Solution: Boolanga facilitated an in-depth research and discovery session with a select group of riders. We gathered direct feedback on existing gear and operational pain points, turning their experiences into actionable data. This highlights how Uber Eats leverages strong partners, such as Eternis, which manages a large rider base, to acquire strategic knowledge in key regions.

• The Result/Key Stat: The participating riders are now engaged in a several-week testing and feedback cycle on new gear prototypes, serving as critical product co-developers. Eternis is eager to continue these sessions, recognizing the value of having its team’s voice directly influence the future of the platform’s tools.