亚马逊加入餐饮外卖竞争,伦敦成为海外第一站。要知道近几年亚马逊公司一直致力于快速物流服务,尽管主要竞争对手UBer、Deliveroo的外卖服务则可以在 30 分钟内完成,配送时间上更有竞争力。
测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识:
offshoot分支;支流;衍生物['ɒfʃuːt]
eclipse使黯然失色;形成蚀[ɪ'klɪps]
logistics network物流网络
marketing campaign营销活动
阅读马上开始,建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间,对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。
Amazon will expand into the crowded UK food delivery space with the launch of a restaurant takeaway service in London that will take on established rivals such as Deliveroo and UberEats.
The new food service — called Amazon Restaurants — will offer one-hour restaurant deliveries for paying customers of its Prime service in parts of the capital.
Amazon has promised free delivery on orders of £15 or more, with 180 restaurants having signed up ranging from the Michelin-starred Indian restaurant Benares to high street pizza chain Strada.
The arrival of Amazon will mean further competition for existing takeaway groups such as Deliveroo and Just Eat, which are already facing a new threat from the arrival in the UK of UberEats, a food delivery offshoot of the US car ride company that launched in the summer.
In the past five years, the western European market for takeaway and delivery grew 2.2 per cent to £18.4bn on the back of the success of such start-ups, while restaurant-bought food revenues fell 7.6 per cent to £135.3bn, according to analyst Euromonitor.
Although eclipsed by Amazon and Uber in size, the three-year-old Deliveroo operates in 12 countries through 2,500 restaurants and is valued, by some estimates, at more than $1bn.
However, Amazon's vast logistics network and scale puts it in a very strong position to challenge its position, according to analysts.
“Amazon can reduce the cost per delivery by bundling deliveries from multiple restaurants to similar locations and improve service by accelerating delivery time,” said Neil Campling, analyst at Northern Trust Capital Markets.
“Amazon, like Uber, cares about land grab and quick scale, not quick economic returns.” The food delivery offer is an extension of grocery delivery service Amazon Fresh, which launched in London this summer. The UK is the first market outside the US for Amazon's restaurant service, which was first launched in Seattle in 2015 and has expanded into 15 US cities.
Al Wilkinson, UK head of Amazon restaurants, said: “Based on our own research into what is important to consumers in food delivery, our team have handpicked a selection of the best quality local restaurants in London. We're excited to be helping many of these small businesses start offering home delivery for the very first time.”
San Francisco-based Uber, well known for its multinational car-hailing app, is also looking to further expand its takeaway service, which was launched in London with an aggressive marketing campaign in June.
UberEats already operates in 18 cities, and Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, head of Uber's Emea operations, says it is “investing heavily to bring UberEats to new cities across Europe”.
The Seattle giant's entry could also squeeze takeaway ordering websites like FTSE 250 company Just Eat and Dutch Takeaway.com, according to analysts. “The risks are rising in our view that Just Eat will have to consider [delivery],” said Mr Campling.
On Tuesday, Takeaway.com, the Dutch challenger to Just Eat, launched its intention to raise €175m through an initial public offering to take on European rivals.
请根据你所读到的文章内容,完成以下自测题目:
A.one half hour
B.in one hour
C.one and half hours
D.in two-hour
答案 (1)
A.£10
B.£15 or more
C.unlimited
D.£25 or more
答案 (2)
A.Deliveroo
B.OrderUp
C.Just Eat
D.UberEats
答案 (3)
A.10 countries
B.12 countries
C.18 countries
D.25 countries
答案 (4)
(1) 答案:B.in one hour解释:亚马逊送餐服务承诺将在一小时内为客户送餐到家。
(2) 答案:B.£15 or more解释:亚马逊送餐要求顾客在点餐总额达到十五英镑或更高的时候,将为其提供免费的送餐服务。
(3) 答案:B.OrderUp解释:在英国,亚马逊现有的送餐竞争对手就已经有Deliveroo,Just Eat和UberEats三家公司。
(4) 答案:D.25 countries解释:Deliveroo公司已经横跨二十五个国家,涉及两千五百个餐厅,为客户提供送餐服务。