The act of cloning features has become accepted tradecraft in the world of social apps. This kicked into high gear years ago when Meta (then Facebook) cloned Snapchat Stories as a central Instagram feature. Now everybody copies TikTok, including Snapchat Reels, YouTube Shorts, and even Amazon.
The latest company to lean into short video is Uber Eats. This takes form in a new feed within the app that serves TikTok-style videos that showcase local food options. In fact, users will only see videos with food that’s close enough to deliver – presumably determined by the account of origin or tags.
Currently being tested in New York, and San Francisco (full rollout TBD), the UX involves video carousels on the Uber Eats home screen and other places within the app. Once users click these carousel previews, they’re taken to the full vertical feed where they can scroll to their heart’s content, a la TikTok.
Food Lust
Altogether, the idea is to engender food lust, pursuant to Uber Eats’ primary goal of boosting order activity. The company seems to position this as content that’s created by restaurants themselves. In that light, it’s unclear if the feed will populate – like TikTok – with user-generated content.
The latter route could be risky given Uber Eats’ goal to keep things positive and to appease restaurant partners. That may present a dilemma, given the “be-real” culture of TikTok, where raw vibes rule. To that end, Uber Eats is shooting for “behind the scenes” footage (think: time-lapsed sushi prep).
Some of these answers may lie in the fact that Uber Eats isn’t charging restaurants for placement or amplification. Its relevance algorithms will be based on location, as noted. So it isn’t looking to squeeze additional dollars out of restaurants for placement, but rather boost order volume for mutual benefit.
Panning back, one aspect that advantages this move is lower-funnel proximity. In other words, engaging videos are showcased a few taps away from a transactional ordering process. The same can’t be said for TikTok itself, though it continues to make moves to be more shoppable, albeit mostly in hard goods.
Speak the Language
Back to the copycat dynamics, Uber’s play is less directly competitive with TikTok than some of the other clones noted above, like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. The same can be said for Amazon’s TikTok-like feed – essentially eCommerce meets TikTok fare (think: dance videos) to engage Gen-Z.
Like Amazon, what Uber is doing here is all about adapting its UX to the “language” that the kids are speaking these days. It’s a modernization move if nothing else. The question is if it comes off as genuine or as contrived – like an older individual dressing like a teenager to appear hip in front of his or her kids.
The answer to that question partly comes down to execution and partly comes down to what directions users take it. And the latter hinges on the format’s applicability. Are short videos conducive to food-centric themes? You could argue that TikTok does indeed have a lot of food-based sub-themes.
So there is a precedent, especially among SMBs to create food-based TikToks. And the option will now be available to Uber Eats’ 1 million global merchants. We’ll keep watching to answer some of the above questions, but it meanwhile has some ingredients (excuse the bad pun) that give it potential.
