Uber Car Service App Launches Spanish Version of UberFresh
A court in December banned Uber Technologies from providing ride share services in Spain, so the company has reemerged as a service to deliver prepared meals, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Uber announced Thursday that it opened a food delivery service in Barcelona, which is similar to the one it operates in California. Prepared meals are loaded into drivers' cars and sold for approximately €10 plus a €2.50 delivery fee ($14).
The five-year-old company wants to maintain a presence in Spain as it attempts to work with governments in various international cities to expand, propelled by more than $4 billion from bond holders and investors.
"This is the first thing we've launched that allows us to get back up and running in Barcelona," company spokesman Ben Novicksaid. He declined to reveal the number of drivers delivering meals.
The Barcelona food delivery service is called UberEats. The same service in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills is called UberFresh.
In late December, Uber stopped operating its mobile car booking service in Spain following a court order to shut down. The court order also instructed telecom companies to block online connections through Uber's app and to Uber.com.
Once Spanish telecom companies began to comply, Uber released an updated version of the app that routed users through a different website instead of Uber.com. The workaround currently remains operational for both Android phones and iPhones.
In addition to food delivery services, Uber has established shopping delivery in Washington, D.C., and bike messengers in New York City.
It is rumored that Google, who has invested $258 million in Uber, is looking to create a car-sharing service of its own. Google employees are already using a Google ride-sharing app not available to the public.
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