Video ads will begin rolling out across Uber services in the US this week. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Uber is about to start displaying video ads across its various service apps, including Uber Eats, Drizly (an Uber-owned alcohol delivery platform), and its namesake ride-hailing app. Announced via a press release on Thursday, full-length video ads — which will play on the main Uber app while users wait for their taxi to arrive — will begin rolling out to users in the US “over the coming weeks.” Uber hopes to entice advertisers with what it knows about its users.
“We have two minutes of your attention. We know where you are, we know where you are going to, we know what you have eaten,” said Uber ad exec Mark Grether to The Wall Street Journal. “We can use all of that to then basically target a video ad towards you.” Two minutes is roughly…