Uber Eats expanding to cover 70% of US population

The rapid expansion of food delivery services has primarily benefited those who live in an urban environment, but now Uber Eats is stepping up its service areas and will cover 70 percent of the U.S. population by the end of the year.

“As Uber Eats grows around the world, expanding our reach in Canada, France, Mexico, Japan and India, we are able to build upon Uber’s technology to continue to grow in markets where our ride-sharing business already exists. However, we are also beginning to launch in markets where ride-sharing is smaller, including some of these new U.S. suburban markets and smaller towns,” Uber, which launched Uber Eats in 2014, said in its announcement.

In order to facilitate this expansion, Uber is launching a self-signup tool for restaurants, which the company said will enable restaurants to start doing deliveries quicker than before.

Uber said that the new expansion will double its U.S. city count from the end of 2017, adding that this year 40 percent of Uber Eats users have been new to Uber.