Uber Eats Aims to ‘Declutter’ App by Eliminating Thousands of Virtual Brands

Uber Eats announced that it will be removing thousands of online-only brands from its app as a way to “declutter” and simplify things for customers.

According to Fox Business, virtual brands are delivery businesses without physical storefronts and these companies “mushroomed on delivery apps during the pandemic, becoming a lifeline for eateries who used their empty kitchens and idle staff to test new ideas and make up for lost sales.” This led to the number of virtual brands quadrupling on Uber Eats since 2021.

John Mullenholz, who oversees the business at Uber Eats, says the cut is affecting brands that have duplicate menus as its parent company, per Fox Business.

Starting today, Uber Eats said it will introduce new guidelines requiring each virtual brand to have more than half of its menu differing from its parent restaurant and any other brand from the same kitchen. The new guidelines will also increase the amount of photos each brand must have that is unique to its menu.

Earlier this month food delivery services GrubHub and Doordash also made similar changes to its guidelines to monitor the number of brands stemming from parent companies and physical addresses.