Uber in NZ - a Year in Review

Uber in NZ - a Year in Review (plus a bite into the future)

What an exciting year it’s been for Uber. We launched in seven new cities across New Zealand, introduced JUMP e-scooters into the capital city and doubled down on our commitment to safety on the platform for both riders and driver partners alike.

Over the last 12 months, we have accumulated a wealth of interesting data about how Kiwis use the Uber platform.

We found that Auckland earned the bragging rights for the city of highest rated drivers across Australia and New Zealand with an average of 4.85. Perhaps related to that Auckland edged out Christchurch for the title of most generous city when it comes to tipping with 43 New Zealanders rewarding Uber drivers for VIP service with a maximum $50 tip.

Hamilton could perhaps brand itself as the party capital of the country, taking out top spot for New Zealand’s night owl city - boasting the highest percentage of rides between 2am and 5am and burning more midnight oil than any hub in Australia or New Zealand. In fact, Hamilton is ranked the 26th most nocturnal for Uber rides in the world.

Uber’s data from the start of the year has revealed that Kiwis penchant for travel hasn’t cooled with Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch airport among the most popular locations in the country for riders to travel to.

Kiwis checked into the Uber app from 64 countries around the world with Australia, USA, UK, France and India the most popular spots for New Zealanders to use the app while abroad. We said kia ora to people from 83 different countries who used the Uber app to get safely from A to B while in Aotearoa.

The appetite of Aucklanders also eclipsed that of their trans-Tasman rivals. The biggest order in NZ was a family and friends feast worth $1,163 from a sushi restaurant. That was a food trend seen globally as the sushi train rolled on with the amount of bite sized goodness delivered globally in 2019 weighing the equivalent of 25,800 cases of beer.

The ‘Keto’ craze kicked into overdrive this year in NZ with an 80 times increase in the amount of searches for the term on the year prior. While ‘Vegan’ also surged with more than double the searches this year than 12 months earlier.

Japanese cuisine is still simmering in popularity terms with ramen keeping eaters warm and cozy all year long. In fact the total length of all the noodles delivered using the Uber Eats app globally in 2019 is seven times longer than the distance from Auckland to Tokyo.

Salads are also here to stay. In fact, if you stacked all the heads of lettuce from the salads ordered in 2019, it would be the height of approximately 2,070 Sky Towers. It’s hardly surprising considering there were more than three thousand salads ordered in one month in New Zealand alone.

While most New Zealanders start their craving for a bite to eat around 6pm on a Friday, the king of the late night meal is meat on chips, with a Turkish restaurant in Christchurch filling the most late night snacks after midnight.

At Uber we’re delighted to partner with world class cities and to treat users like VIPs every day of the week, and we’ve onc

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