Uber has expanded its delivery offerings in South Africa by introducing over-the-counter drug delivery service as it seeks to claw market share in the fast-growing online shopping sector in Africa’s most industrialised economy.

Uber’s South African unit already has a lion’s share of $600 million in food dispatching market in that country.

The application is used by two million people in South Africa who, in addition to the transport and food delivery service, will now get a new service with just one click.

– The nationwide lockdown and restriction in movement created an immediate need to accelerate our business in increasing the accessibility to daily essentials – said general manager of Uber in South Africa.

In its latest Digital Market Outlook, information portal Statista predicted South Africa’s e-commerce market would see annual compound growth of 11% up to 2024, with the number of online shoppers growing to nearly 37 million from around 25 million currently.

This is a fine example of a company adapting to a new way of functioning and doing business. It is certain that the corona virus will be present for a long time and that we have already had to learn to live with it. During the state of emergency in Serbia, several pharmacies introduced the delivery of medicines to home addresses and some carriers introduced a kind of couriers, i.e. grocery and essentials delivery services, but Uber has definitely gone one step further and gave us a topic to think about.

Source: Tanjug