Dineout

The challenge

Plus had passed 100,000 subscribers in Dubai and the model was holding, but Dubai is a small city with a single addressable market. Three growth options sat in front of us. Geographic expansion across the region, with all the cost and complexity of launching from scratch. Going after the post-Covid wave of tourists and new expats, both transient or distracted in different ways. Or stealing from the competition, the most expensive route of all. Looking at the three together, a common thread emerged: every option needed a hook, a reason, or a wedge that wasn't just the same thing slightly cheaper. The question stopped being which growth strategy to pick. It became what new product could serve all three.

The approach

Ran a structured evaluation of the GCC market for blue-ocean sectors adjacent to Careem's existing services. Dining ticked every box. Then went into customer research to understand what dining looked like for a Careem customer, what they weighed up, and how the product would need to flex around their behaviour. Designed and launched an MLP that tested the connected super app experience as a single thing rather than in pieces, and phased the rollout to prove the model across the customer base.

• Evaluated five sectors (dining, entertainment, beauty, fashion, home services) against margin, frequency, and competition; dining ticked every box
• Read the competition as two camps: weak dining specialists with no local depth, and discovery giants whose job ended at the search result, ours started there
• Mapped customer behaviour across three dining modes (casual, considered, and the in-between), showing how weighting and pace shifted with context
• Launched an MLP that tested the connected experience as a single thing: discovery, integration with Rides and Pay, contextual surfacing, and physical signage all on day one
• Took a calculated risk on a rougher payment flow at launch, with the rest of the experience seamless enough to carry it and a clear roadmap to pay-at-table via QR or POS integration
• Phased the rollout from white-collar Dubai outwards, where the strongest performance came from chains in the middle of the market, not at the ends

The impact

Hit $1m in GTV in the first year, posted the highest CSAT of any Careem service, and customers racked up over $300K in savings a month. The day-one stacked offer (10% off rides, free food delivery, BOGO on Dineout for AED 19 or local equivalent) became the launch playbook that took Plus from 100K subscribers to 300K and into three new cities, Abu Dhabi, Amman and Riyadh. Dineout was where the super app stopped being a talking point and started being a product customers used. The connected experience wasn't a slide any more. It was the reason customers signed up.