By starting in Amman (without any fanfare), Careem has quietly extended its food delivery service Careem Now to Jordan. The start date has not been verified yet, but it’s been at least a few weeks since the service was made accessible in Amman to clients.
Careem Now, which also expanded to Riyadh previously this year, was first introduced in Jeddah and Dubai late last year, just as Uber Eats is a three-sided marketplace made up of restaurants, riders, and clients. The business is partnering with restaurants to list them in their app that allows customers to order food from these restaurants.
Careem Captains will pick up the orders and deliver them to the clients who have the choice of tracking the delivery in real time. Careem charges the client for each delivery with a flat delivery fee and also gets a cut from the restaurant.
In Amman, the firm charges a flat delivery fee of JOD 2.5 (USD 3.53) according to its app, which is very competitive given that Talabat (one of the country’s major food distribution brands) charges between JOD 3 to 7 depending on the restaurant from which one order is placed.
Amman is one of Careem Now’s fastest growing cities that makes sense as the competition in Amman isn’t as intense as it is in Saudi & UAE where the industry has 2-3 major global players including Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and many other local food distribution startups that seem to be doing pretty well.
It has also been reported that Pakistan is the next market for Careem Now. Currently, the business is embarking on restaurants to launch in Karachi over the next few weeks.
Careem had also said at the moment of the release that it is planning to spend $150 million in Careem Now and later expand into various other delivery vertices to deliver just anything. It will be interesting to see if the business is genuinely pursuing those plans after next year Uber has completed its takeover.