Amazon.com Inc. said on Tuesday it would end its U.S. restaurant food delivery service on June 24, giving in to intense competition from GrubHub Inc, DoorDash, Uber Technologies’ Uber Eats services.
“A small fraction of Amazon employees are affected by this decision, and many of those affected have already found new roles at Amazon,” the company said in a statement. “Employees will be offered personalized support to find a new role within, or outside of, the company.”
Amazon Restaurants was launched in 2015 in Seattle and was designed to give Prime members a way to order meals, apart from products and groceries, through the online retailer. The service was expanded to more than 20 U.S. cities, and then to London where the program ended in November.
The unit was led at one point by the executive also in charge of Amazon’s ticketing business, but was overseen later by an executive running its two-hour grocery delivery service, Prime Now, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
However, Amazon still has ambitions in food delivery. In May, the company took a stake in British online food delivery company Deliveroo, leading a $575 million fundraising.
Shares of Amazon edged up 0.4 per cent, while GrubHub rose 8.6 per cent.
Geekwire first reported the news.