Uber Eats Japan has a strong presence in Japan's food delivery market, while Rocket Now's growth is raising concerns about increasing market concentration. The market structure is changing amid developments at the four major companies, as well as recent exits and losses.
Japan's food delivery industry, which expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, has seen a series of exits amid intensifying competition, and is now becoming concentrated among three companies: Uber Eats Japan, Rocket Now and Demae-can. Uber Eats Japan retains an overwhelming presence in the market, and its representative cites customers, partner merchants and delivery partners as factors behind the company's growth.
Uber Eats has processed more than 1 billion cumulative orders in Japan since entering the market in 2016. Monthly active users (MAU) are reported to number 6.2 million, with the company said to hold more than half of the domestic market. Meanwhile, Rocket Now offers delivery at “the same prices as in-store” at more than 10,000 locations, and cumulative app downloads have exceeded 8 million, propelling it to second place in the industry by MAU.
Wolt exited the market in March this year, and menu, a subsidiary of KDDI, will end its service at the end of September. Demae-can posted its eighth consecutive final loss in its results for the fiscal year ending August 2026. Overall, an intense war of attrition continues, driven by financial resources and price competition. Some industry participants are concerned that if price competition continues to intensify, it will harm the market over the long term.