Uber Eats sees 20% contract jump in March
22 April, 2020
The Uber Eats food delivery service in March saw a 20 percent increase in the number of restaurant contracts in Japan from a month earlier, its operator said Tuesday, as the federal government urges people to remain at home to support the coronavirus spread.
As of the end of March, restaurants using Uber Eats topped 20,000 weighed against some 17,000 per month earlier, japan arm of U.S. ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. said.
In contrast, it took five months for deliveries to go up 20 percent to the end-of-February figure of 17,000.
Demae-can Co, among Japan's major food delivery operators, said it saw orders in March rise some 300,000 from the prior month to 3.03 million.
Nearly 20 prefectural governments, including authorities in Tokyo and Osaka, have asked the operators of varied businesses such as for example restaurants and pubs to shut down or close sooner than usual following Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's April 7 declaration of circumstances of emergency to prevent the further spread of the virus.
The declaration primarily covered Tokyo and six other prefectures and was extended Thursday to all or any 47 prefectures in Japan.
Authorities have made no particular request for delivery services.
An economist said, however, that delivery sales can make only a restricted contribution to propping up the entire eatery business.
"Delivery services will only cover a small amount of the losses" they are suffering through the pandemic, said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief market economist at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.
According to his estimates, household shelling out for eating out will decrease by 75 to 80 percent through the May 6 planned end of the emergency in the seven prefectures where the state of emergency was initially in place.
"There is absolutely no difference in the extreme situation" for restaurants and bars, Maruyama said.
Takeshi Watabe, a 40-year-old manager operating four restaurants in Tokyo, is using Uber Eats. The amount of customers halved after April began, although his restaurants were full on most days before the virus outbreak, he said.
Deliveries have not covered the deficit and he has applied for a mortgage. But without prospect yet for a finish to the virus spread, he's "in two minds" about whether to borrow additional money.
As of Monday, domestic infection cases reached 11,139, excluding those from the Diamond Princess cruise liner that was quarantined near Tokyo in February.
Source: japantoday.com
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