• Uber Eats has shared the insights from its 2023 Annual Cravings Report for South Africa.
• The Report looks at what types of food South Africans ordered last year, as well as how much they paid on average.
• An interesting finding is that Johannesburg Uber Eats customers ordered more vegan food than their Cape Town counterparts.

You are what you eat, or so they say. These days the options are near endless when it comes to choice, and to find out what South Africans favoured last year, Uber Eats has shared some insights from its 2023 Annual Cravings Report.

Some of the findings are quite interesting, such as the fact that the shortest time to wait for an order via the app was 69 seconds (nice). “The order, for a Fanta Orange, was delivered from a restaurant just 16 metres from the customer’s house,” Uber Eats confirmed in a release shared with Hypertext.

Most other South Africans had to wait 30 minutes or longer for an order, but the above statistic shows that convenience trumps cost every time.

Speaking of which, the Report notes that the highest order totalled more than R30k. It was not for food, however, but rather alcohol.

“The two largest orders from a single user on the Uber Eats app this year both involved alcohol and were executed on the same day. On 13 October, a customer put in a nearly R14,000 alcohol order. Just 25 minutes later, they put in another order for nearly R19,000 from the same store. That amounts to a total of about R33,000, including tips,” explained Uber Eats.

It also looks like many South Africans turned to the app on a near daily basis. To that end, “one user ordered at least once a day for every day of 2023. When it comes to being a creature of habit, however, few can compete with the user who ordered from the same restaurant 348 times in 2023.”

Another interesting insight from the report is that Johannesburg overtook its counterpart at the coast when it comes to the popularity of vegan food, with Cape Town losing the top spot to those on the highveld.

“While many South Africans think of Cape Town as the epicentre of vegan eating in South Africa, in 2023 however, Johannesburg overtook it with vegan orders. Users in The City of Gold made 23% more vegan orders than The Mother City,” the Report noted.

As for the real heroes of the app, the ones actually making the deliveries, Uber Eats pointed out that the delivery person who took the most trips in 2023 took more than 9 000 trips. “For perspective, that’s equivalent to circling the earth more than 2.27 times or driving from Cape Town to Johannesburg and back nearly 33 times,” the company added.

Lastly, in terms of the food that proved most popular locally, South African colours don’t run. Here Uber Eats found that while customers using the app ordered the usual take-away favourites like pizza, beer, burgers, and sushi, they also enjoyed their fair share of local food. “Among the most loved South African dishes on the app are pap, malva pudding, chakalaka, bunny chow, gatsbys and boerewors,” Uber Eats concluded.

Following the pandemic ecommerce boom, it looks like many South Africans favour an app compared to venturing out in-person to get their grub.

“Our fourth Annual Cravings report not only provides valuable insights into what foods (and drinks) South Africans crave. It also demonstrates how big a role Uber Eats plays in the lives of ordinary South Africans. In 2024 and beyond, we aim to address even more of their wants and needs and to do so in new and innovative ways,” enthused Daniele Joubert, head of Consumer Growth at Uber Eats Sub-Saharan Africa.

[Image – Photo by mafe estudio on Unsplash]