An app that served as a lifeline of libations during the COVID-19 pandemic is closing up shop.
Uber has confirmed to TODAY.com that it is shutting down Drizly, its alcohol delivery app. The rideshare and food delivery company, which acquired Drizly in 2021 for $1.1 billion, says it will close down both the Drizly business and the brand with its distinctive red bear logo at the end of March.
“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,” Pierre Dimitri Gore-Coty, Uber’s SVP of delivery, tells TODAY.com in an email. “We’re grateful to the Drizly team for their many contributions to the growth of the BevAlc delivery category as the original industry pioneer.”
Additionally, Drizly announced the news itself on its official social media accounts on Jan. 15, saying in part that “it’s true what they say... all good things must come to an end.”
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Uber says it’s focused on making its services more of a one-stop shop, with more selection within a single app. This includes pivoting to serve Uber’s 142 million monthly active users who may want to be able to get multiple types of products delivered using the same app.
Uber Eats already delivers beer, wine and liquor through its app and drivers, and while Drizly also provides home delivery, it functioned as a go-between for liquor stores and customers. When users place an order with the Drizly app, the liquor store delivers it directly to the customer.
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The company also adds that the majority of Drizly consumers also have Uber accounts, and that Uber Eats’ beverage and alcohol category has doubled in the last year.
The business news was first reported by Axios on Jan. 15. The outlet reported that after Uber acquired Drizly, the Federal Trade Commission discovered security failures led to a data breach in 2020. That breach exposed the personal information of about 2.5 million Drizly users — although Drizly and its CEO were alerted to problems two years before the breach.
The FTC later ordered Drizly to destroy some of its user data and further restricted what the company could collect and retain, among other requirements.
Drizly surged in popularity over the pandemic and the app’s growth skyrocketed during the lockdown. Many folks sang the service’s praises online and its year-over-year sales spiked 1,000 percent in April 2020.
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