Uber, the highly popular yet contentious app-enabled transportation company, is bringing its home food delivery service to Melbourne, with an official launch as soon as next month. 
But the imminent arrival of "UberEATS" in Australia's second biggest city comes despite Uber's main ridesharing service, UberX still being deemed illegal by Victorian lawmakers.
Melbourne will become just the third non-US city, and the second city outside of North America, to get the service. 
UberEATS is currently live in Paris, Toronto and handful of US cities including San Francisco, New York City and Los Angeles.  
Uber's entry into the lucrative Australian home food delivery industry will pit it against a wide range of players including Menulog, Deliveroo, SupperTime and technically even ASX listed sharemarket darling Domino's Pizza. 
However, UberEATS is likely to focus on the more premium segment of the restaurant market, including potentially outlets that have never offered food for delivery before.   
Details about the Melbourne expansion, including the official launch date, are still being worked out, and discussions with restaurants are still in the formative stages.  
In US cities such as New York and San Francisco, UberEATS offers to deliver certain dishes from participating restaurants within minutes. 
The decision to launch UberEATS in Melbourne could be considered a bit of a slap in the face to Sydney, which is competing furiously with Melbourne to be the nation's dominant tech hub and formally legalised Uber's ridesharing service in   December. 
Simon Rossi, formerly Uber's general manager in Melbourne, who will spearhead the UberEATS push in Australia, said the company viewed Melbourne as an ideal fit for the product. 
"Melbourne is known probably around the world as being the foodie capital of Australia, [Melburnians] enjoy eating out and cooking, and we feel people will enjoy the option of having quality meals delivered to them through Uber," he told Fairfax Media.  
California based Uber Technologies is considered the world's most valuable privately held technology company, with a recent funding round valuing the business at $US62.5 billion ($86 billion).
While Uber's core market of personal transportation in major cities around the world is considered enormous, the company has been taking steps to build new revenue streams, amid rising market qualms over the valuations of startups. 
In the US, alongside UberEATS, it launched a carpooling service (UberPOOL), and courier/messaging type service (UberRUSH).
The company views UberEATS as a way to provide more work to its growing fleet of drivers, from which it generates commissions.  
"There are around 20,000 Uber X drivers on the platform every week and the average ETA [estimated time of arrival] across Australia is around 3 to 4 minutes," Rossi said. "So we should be able to pick up food and deliver it in about 3 and a half minutes."
Customers ordering food through UberEATS app will incur a delivery fee, which is still to be determined.
From a driver perspective, Mr Rossi said the fees for an UberEATS trip would be similar to that for an UberX trip. "It shouldn't matter to a driver what trip they are doing, they should be getting paid the same amount of money."
"We will look at other options of delivery as well, whether or not its motorbikes or people on foot."
UberEATS will be offered as a separate smartphone app.
"Part of the reason for that is moving from A to B is very different from browsing and ordering from menus," he said. 
The service is expected to initially be made available in Melbourne's central business district and inner suburbs, with participating restaurants expected to range from high end premium outlets to "local favourites".  Mr Rossi said the company hopes to eventually roll the service out to other cities in Australia, including Sydney. 
He said Uber had not discussed the launch of UberEATS with regulators in Melbourne. 
The rise and rise of Uber has fuelled a stampede by investors into on demand (or "Uber for...") startups. Last year, startups operating in this space attracted $US15.4 billion in funding, according to CB Insights.