Uber ends alcohol delivery app to focus on another service

NEW YORK: Uber has announced the closure of Drizly, the US-based alcohol delivery service it acquired for $1.1 billion in 2021.

The decision comes three years after the acquisition, with Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, Uber’s Senior Vice President of Delivery, citing a focus on the “core Uber Eats strategy” as the driving force behind this move.

Uber integrated Drizly’s diverse selection of beer, wine, and spirits into its Eats app, providing consumers with a comprehensive range of options.

Despite this integration, Drizly maintained a separate application, offering users a dedicated platform for alcohol delivery.

“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,” stated Gore-Coty, expressing gratitude to the Drizly team for their contributions to the growth of the beverage and alcohol delivery category.

The decision to shut down Drizly raises questions about potential cybersecurity issues, considering Drizly’s past data breach incident in 2020.

The breach exposed the information of 2.5 million customers, and following Uber’s acquisition, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that Drizly CEO James Cory Rellas was made aware of security issues as early as 2018.

The FTC concluded that Drizly failed to implement adequate safeguards, making the data breach possible. As a result, the FTC ordered Drizly to destroy irrelevant personal data and mandated Rellas to implement robust information security programmes in any future CEO role.

The exact role of cybersecurity concerns in Uber’s decision remains unclear, but the company seems committed to continuing alcohol delivery services through its core Uber Eats platform.

The closure of Drizly marks a pivotal moment in Uber’s strategic evolution, emphasising its dedication to refining and enhancing its primary service offerings.

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