Rocket Internet Ships German Grocery Delivery App to Australia, Asia

Rocket Internet, a German startup investor, has given up on its not-quite-a-year-old delivery service ShopWings after struggling to get support and approval from retailers and the government. German shoppers will no longer be able to use the app to do their grocery shopping after July 24.

ShopWings is an Uber-inspired sharing app, similar to Instacart, that allows German shoppers to shop for groceries online and have them delivered by independent contractors — which included supermarkets Edeka, Alnatura, Aldi and Lidl. Since its launch in October of 2014, the app has been unsuccessful in wooing shoppers to use the app.

To add insult to injury, the app has also had some hurdles thrown at them by the government. The EU has not made things easy for ShopWings with a court ruling mandating that the app has to publicly list the ingredients of all the products — all 18,000 of them — it offers. Another upcoming EU ruling will require a two-step verification process for orders above a certain amount, making the grocery convenience app, and others like it, a little less convenient.

It’s not completely over for Rocket Internet and ShopWings. A Rocket Internet spokesman explained that ShopWings may be done in Germany, but the company hopes it will have better luck in other continents as they plan to launch in Australia and South Asian countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Rocket Internet is no stranger to making aggressive business decisions — and it seems to be quick to react to trends. In March, the investor company shut down Lamido, its Asian consumer-to-consumer marketplace, instead opting to merge the platform’s 2,500-plus merchants with its eCommerce business, Lazada.

But it has had a busy year beyond that, too, with its current investments ranging across a multitude of markets — from cleaning to food delivery and beyond.

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