Gett taxi app promises chilled champagne deliveries London within 10 minutes
Londoners in the city's smartest boroughs can now have champagne delivered to their door in under 10 minutes through the Gett taxi app. Seen as a rival to Uber, although it uses licensed black cabs, Gett is an iOS and Android app for hailing a taxi from your smartphone, but in an attempt to stand out from its competition (and perhaps lure in the wealthier clientele) the company has partnered with drinks retailer Amathus and Veuve Clicquot champagne for the service available from today.
The multi-billion dollar ride-hailing market has been called a bubble, but it just got even more bubbly.

Gett, an on-demand car service with more than $200 million in funding to date, announced(opens in a new tab) Monday that it is launching a 10-minute champagne delivery service (two champagne flutes included) in partnership with Veuve Clicquot for customers in certain upscale sections of London.

The boozy offering is part of Gett's broader strategy to expand from rides into other delivery services. Gett teased plans earlier this year to launch delivery options for pizza, sushi, flowers, plumbers and more. The startup changed its name from GetTaxi in part to reflect these broader uses.

At best this might sound like catering to the pampered top 1%. At worst it might come off as a shameless publicity stunt.

Both may be true.

Yet, these extra delivery offerings are increasingly becoming a new frontline for the rivalry between fast-growing, super funded ride-hailing applications as they look to build on their large fleets to deepen relationships with customers and build new revenue streams that help justify their lofty valuations.

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of Gett Clicquot. From tomorrow, order @VeuveClicquotUK(opens in a new tab) in the app #London(opens in a new tab) only pic.twitter.com/O4FX6IZjnb(opens in a new tab)— Gett UK (@Gett_UK) July 27, 2015(opens in a new tab)

“If we can get you a car in five minutes, we can get you anything in five minutes," Travis Kalanick, CEO and cofounder of Uber, said in one interview(opens in a new tab) in 2014 about the company's potential to break into logistics beyond providing basic transportation.

In recent months, the $40 billion startup that has become synonymous with hailing cars through an application, has made a significant push into meal deliveries with UberEats in markets like New York City and Chicago. Uber also has aspirations to work with retailers(opens in a new tab) on deliveries, though this effort has been slower to get off the ground.

And yes, Uber still delivers kittens from time to time for the inevitable publicity.

Sidecar, another similar service, launched same-day deliveries this year in Los Angeles and San Francisco for everything from groceries and flowers to medical marijuana(opens in a new tab).

"Our drivers can earn up to 75% more when they deliver both people and packages because their time is better utilized," the startup explained in a statement earlier this year. "Riders also benefit because there are more drivers available, lower wait times and consistently better prices."

Lyft, Uber's chief rival in the U.S., has yet to fully embrace this model, but the company did acknowledge this opportunity in earlier interviews with Mashable.

While flush with cash and hubris, services like Uber and Gett face competition from startups like Instacart, Postmates and Drizly (specifically for alcohol deliveries), which focus solely on deliveries rather than rides, as well as from technology giants like Amazon which are pushing for same-day deliveries to beat back the newer competition.