UberEats, the food delivery service introduced by ride sharing giant Uber, will expand across more than 40 towns and cities in the UK before the end of the year as it continues to compete with rivals Deliveroo and JustEat.

Uber, whose car-hailing app has caused upheaval in the taxi industry, disrupted the takeaway market in London when it launched UberEats in June last year. The app is now also available in Manchester and Birmingham and more than 1 million customers have downloaded it since its launch, according to the company.

“It’s clear from the response we’ve seen in London, Manchester and Birmingham that there’s huge appetite from people to order food at the touch of a button from their favourite local restaurants,” Jambu Palaniappan, regional manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa at UberEats, said.

“We’re really excited about the future of the business which is why we’re investing heavily in an ambitious plan to launch the app in at least 40 towns and cities in the UK by the end of the year,” he added.

Some 55 per cent of the UK’s population can order a car through Uber and the company aims to replicate that with UberEats.

UberEats has so far partnered with over 2,000 restaurant in the UK including frozen yoghurt chain Snog, Lebanese restaurant Comptoir Libanais, Vietnamese street food restaurant Pho and La Bodega Negra, a Soho-based Mexican restaurant.

UberEats continues to face competition from Deliveroo which earlier this month launched in Newport. It says it now supplies customers across 100 towns and cities in the UK.

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Uber, and chief executive officer Travis Kalanick, are also under scrutiny because of a series of scandals and accusations of operating a sexist workplace.