A look back at 2021

Each December as we approach the new year, we take a moment to look back at the past year - where we Ubered, what we Eats-ed, and more. As the world got vaccinated and cities reopened, it's clear we all discovered safe new ways to go get it.

Here are the trends we saw:

On the move again

• Globe trotters. More than 500 riders took at least one trip on five distinct continents, and 2 riders took at least one trip on all six inhabited continents.
• And jetsetters, too. From Los Angeles to London, people around the world relied on Uber while traveling. Jetsetters from the U.S., Mexico and the U.K. ordered the most Ubers while abroad, and international tourists took the most trips in Mexico City, Miami andLisbon, with Paris, Madrid, London and Dubai also high on the list.
• Tourist trends.The Empire State Building was again the most frequently Ubered-to tourist attraction in the world - and one driver even went there 253 times! Selfridges department store in London, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and Disneyland in California were high on our must-see lists, too.
• 5 star rides. Drivers in the French city of Besançon (pop. 116,775) have received an average of 5 stars across all rides in the city for the second year running. Corsica (France), Osijek (Croatia), Vila Real (Portugal) and the Garden Route district (South Africa) were also amongst those that received a perfect score!
• Generosity rocks. Despite all the adversity, Uber customers were more thankful than ever this year. Around the world, the number of customers who tipped increased by more than 59% compared to last year.
• Uber Love. As fate would have it, a few couples who met during shared Uber rides tied the knot this year! One couplehad even met on one of the busiest nights of the year - Halloween.

A few food trends

• Foodie faves are here to stay. While traditional delivery items like french fries, Pad Thai, garlic naan, and miso soup top the charts for popular food items, some unique ingredients are on the rise though and look to be hot commodities in 2022: kombucha is as popular as ever, oat milk is the reigning queen of the dairy-free world, and we predict avocado will remain our favorite toast companion.
• We're all going bananas.Bananas are still the #1 selling grocery item in the United States - in fact, we sold more than 25,150 pounds of bananas in the U.S. in September alone.
• It's 5:00 PM on Uber Eats.We began delivering alcohol this year, and thirsty folks customers in Sacramento, Palm Springs and Tampa Bay were most excited, ordering most often. When happy hour hit, large margaritas, Tito's vodka, White Claw variety packs, Josh Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and Corona were the most popular orders.
• Tequila 2022. Margs over mules? Nearly 80% of retailers plan to carry more tequila next year, on par with bourbon, and 40 points ahead of vodka, according to Drizly. It mirrors sales trends on Drizly, where over the past few years tequila's share of spirits sales has grown by 13%, while vodka's share has declined by 2%.
• Convenience, delivered. We added convenience favorites like Walgreens, CVS, and 7-Eleven and lots of local flower shops via FTD to the Uber Eats app this year, and saw orders of sunflowers, slurpees, COVID-19 Antigen Self Test Kits and TYLENOL Extra Strength increase.
• Worldwide snackers. Visitors from a massive 81 different countries ordered Uber Eats in Italy in the last three months alone, where the most popular cuisine was - surprise surprise - Italian!
• We emojis. Uber Eats customers loved learning that they could search for their favorite dishes using food emojis - whether they were looking for , , or , they used emojis to satisfy their cravings.

Thank you for safely riding, driving, and eating with Uber this year - we look forward to being a part of your 2022.