Uber plans to add video ads to its main app, Uber Eats, and alcohol app Drizly, starting in the US; 345K merchants bought Uber ads in Q1, up from 315K in Q4
The company, which sees ad sales as a key growth area, will debut long-form videos on Uber Eats, Drizly and its ride-hailing app
Context & Ripple Effects
Uber's ad business has been compounding since it began selling ads to restaurants inside Uber Eats in 2019, then formalized the effort with a global advertising unit targeting $1B in annual gross ad bookings by 2024. Today's move extends that unit's reach: long-form video across the ride-hailing app, Eats, and Drizly, the $1.1B alcohol delivery acquisition now doubling as an ad surface.
The demand side is already there — 345,000 merchants bought Uber ads in Q1, up from 315,000 in Q4 — so the question is inventory, and video adds more of it across three apps at once.
First-order effects
- Merchants buying Uber ads get a richer format than search banners: long-form video placements in front of riders, Eats customers, and alcohol buyers, deepening the spend of the 30,000 net new advertisers added last quarter.
- Drizly shifts further from standalone brand to monetizable inventory within Uber's ad stack, justifying the acquisition price beyond its delivery economics.
Second-order effects
- Lyft's push into in-app rider ads — with video planned by year-end — shows the rival playbook converging on Uber's, forcing both to compete for the same restaurant and CPG ad budgets rather than just riders.
- Ad dollars flowing into delivery apps raise the stakes for placement prominence, giving Uber pricing leverage over merchants who previously paid mainly commissions on orders.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, rideshare and delivery apps become retail-media-style networks where attention during idle wait time funds cheaper rides and delivery fees — a structural shift in how mobility services make money.
- That would pressure regulators and advertisers alike to treat these apps' audience data like other major digital ad platforms', pulling them deeper into the measurement and privacy debates of big tech.
The trend: Mobility and delivery apps are converting captive user wait time into advertising inventory, turning ride-hailers into media businesses alongside their core marketplaces.