Amazon expands its Prime Now restaurant delivery beyond the U.S. and into London

Amazon has announced that its one-hour-or-less restaurant delivery service has opened in London, its first market outside the U.S.

The internet giant first introduced meal deliveries to Seattle back in September, before expanding to cover myriad U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Austin, Portland, Baltimore, San Diego, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, and New York. The London launch today comes more than a year after the Prime Now app first landed in the U.K. capital, letting select subscribers of  Amazon’s annual $99 (£79) membership order goods for delivery within the hour. These included “daily essentials” such as batteries, chargers, USB cables, cereal, paper towels, books, soap, and other smaller items.

Today’s launch comes two months after Uber introduced its UberEats food-delivery service to London, however, perhaps a more notable rival in the city is Deliveroo, which is going from strength to strength and recently expanded into booze delivery, too.

But Amazon has mind-share, and its arrival is a significant addition to the burgeoning high-quality restaurant delivery market and a sign that competition is really beginning to heat up.

For now, the service is limited to a selection of London zip codes, including City, West End, Westminster, Pimlico, Victoria, Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, Islington, Kensington, Chelsea, Southwark, Lambeth, Vauxhall, and a handful of other areas. For those using the Prime Now app, restaurants will show up automatically if their zip code is set to one of the eligible areas.