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Suppose Uber decides to launch UberEats in a few new cities. How do you choose which cities to launch?

  • Related to Product Launch
  • For Platform PM
  Uber
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QUESTION: Suppose Uber decides to launch UberEats in a few new cities. How do you choose which cities to launch?

 

Doubt

Clarification

Where in the world are we hoping to launch?

USA

Does it matter if these cities already have Uber launched?

Yes, these cities should already have Uber

 

Clarify Scope 

The objective of this launch is to bring UberEats to 3 new cities that already have Uber in place. This may conflict with other food delivery products that are established in that area such as Doordash and Gruhhub. If Uber has already been launched then we already have drivers, so we will need to generate an appetite in our user base. These cities will most likely been suburban or urban areas where there is a sufficient number of restaurants to choose from, as well as a large customer base to engage with.

 

Describe The Goal of The Launch

Grab market share.

 

Describe The Strategy of The Launch

I would like to focus on Millennials, as they enjoy the convenience of food delivery and are the biggest user segment for apps like Uber and Lyft. My strategy for grabbing market share away from other food delivery products is to come in with discounted rates, thus undercutting the competition, this could also be accomplished through free delivery. This could be done for the first 6 months to ensure a loyal customer base. Some metrics I would use to gauge the success of this launch include:

  • # of app downloads

  • # of first time orders

  • % of returning users

  • D/W/M active users that are ordering food

  • Avg cost of order

  • Avg order rating for food quality

  • Avg wait time for delivery

  • Avg driver tip

 

Develop Three-Phase Implementation Plan

Pre-Launch

  • Identify potential cities based on partnership interest from local restaurants

  • Send out surveys to Uber drivers and riders to gauge interest in UberEats

During Launch

  • Run local ads a few days before the launch on sites like Instagram, Netflix, Hulu

  • Email users in those cities of the product launch

Post-Launch

  • Analyze data to using KPIs to gauge success of the launch

 

Summarize

To summarize, I would look for suburban or urban cities to launch UberEats in, preferably cities that already have Uber. I would target Millennials and look to grab market share as our primary goal. We could entice customers to switch over from competitors with deals, free delivery, for the first few months. Use the KPIs that I highlighted above. During the pre-launch, I would gauge interest from local restaurants in a few cities, as well as send out surveys to current Uber users (drivers and riders) to gauge interest from them. During the launch I woud run local ads a few days before, as well as email current Uber users. Post-launch, I would analyze the data using the KPIs

Clarify scope of the project

 So the objective here is that Uber wants to launch Uber Eats in new cities in addition to the existing cities it already caters to. So the scope is to shortlist the cities for this launch.

Choose a goal

The goals will be to:

  1. 1.    To identify cities where there is demand for food delivery app
  2. 2.    City infrastructure and its population with internet penetration
  3. 3.    Where there are local restaurants for tie ups
  4. 4.    Considerable market share up for grab

Describe your strategy to achieve your goals

Strategy and list of questions:

  • ·      Market research to list down the cities with its population including population demographics (trying to identify younger population vs rest) and internet penetration i.e. number of people having internet connection and smart phones
  • ·      Market Research on Local Restaurants as well as small vendors and unorganized sector consisting of people operating from homes
  • ·      Competitor research around the scale, # of deliveries, number of players, any barriers to entry, tie up opportunities, etc.
  • ·      Use experience in other cities to identify the demographic of population who are more likely to use the app.

Based on above, I will consider below factors with certain weightages assigned to each of the factor and derive a score for the cities

  1. Internet Penetration and Population Demographic: There is younger population including working professional and college going crowd which might be heavy users of the app and there is internet penetration
  2. Competitors: Is the market already dominated by some competitor with significant market share or is there no competitor at all?
  3. Local Regulations and Restaurants: There are plenty of options for users to order food from and there are significant local vendors to tie up with. To evaluate if there are local regulations or unions to avoid such tie ups and number of approvals required to get this moving
  4. Easy to strike Partnership: Is there a small player/competitor already existing in few cities with whom we can tie up and check for synergies. For example there may be local aggregator which may have local market share but lacking the technical expertise and reach of Uber which can be evaluated

City Name Factor 1 (0.35) Factor 2 (0.3) Factor 3 (0.25) Factor 4 (0.1) Final Score
           
           
           
           

Once we have the scores, we will shortlist further cities based on threshold we have decided. We can then leverage our experience in similar cities and additional factors if needed to further short list and come up with cities.