Uber, a prominent ride-hailing company, is discontinuing its acquired alcohol delivery service, Drizly, for which it paid $1.1 billion.
The company had planned to integrate Drizly into Uber Eats but never succeeded.
According to Axios, the Drizly brand will be phased out by March.
“After three years of Drizly operating independently within the Uber family, we’ve decided to close the business and focus on our core Uber Eats strategy of helping consumers get almost anything – from food to groceries to alcohol – all on a single app,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement.
“We’re grateful to the Drizly team for their many contributions to the growth of the BevAlc delivery category as the original industry pioneer,” the spokesperson added.
Drizly provided backend technology that let local liquor stores provide their own deliveries.
In 2020, it confirmed a hack that exposed information of around 2.5 million customers. It was the leading on-demand alcohol marketplace in the US, available in more than 1,400 cities.
After alcohol at your doorstep, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi had even planned to deliver cannabis or marijuana when “the road is clear”.
The Uber CEO had told CNBC News in 2021 that the ride-hailing company could start delivering weed once federal regulation allows the company to do so.
“When the road is clear for cannabis, when federal laws come into play, we’re absolutely going to take a look at it,” Khosrowshahi was quoted as saying in the report.
Marijuana still remains illegal under the US federal law, but some lawmakers have expressed a willingness to change the policy.
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