DoorDash CEO Tony Xu in San Francisco on Oct. 7, 2022.David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesDoorDash beat Wall Street twice on Wednesday, reporting second-quarter revenue and a third quarter forecast that rose above analysts’ estimates.
The San Francisco delivery company
reported Q2 revenue of $3.28 billion, up 25% from the same period a year ago and well above consensus estimates of $3.16 billion.
It also reported a 20% increase in total orders and Q3 gross merchandise value—the total dollar value of orders placed through the DoorDash platform—of about $24.5 billion, topping analyst estimates of $23.7 billion.
DoorDash shares reached $280 in after-hours trading, up from $258 at market close. The company’s shares started the year at $170.
It is clear that the 12-year-old company
has dominated the restaurant delivery wars in the U.S. over Uber Eats and Grubhub, owning somewhere around two-thirds of the market thanks in part to its prescient move into the suburbs that was supercharged by COVID-19 lockdowns.
But if you look at DoorDash’s investment and M&A activity this year, you’ll see signs of a much grander ambition beyond restaurant delivery in the U.S.
In May, the company announced a nearly $4 billion deal for Deliveroo (which gives DoorDash a top-three meal delivery business in the U.K.) and a $1.2 billion deal for the hospitality software company SevenRooms (which makes software to help restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality businesses manage bookings).
Meanwhile DoorDash has continued to aggressively go after other types of consumer spending, signing delivery partnerships with retailers big and small across grocery, pharmacy, pet, sporting goods, and alcohol categories.
Despite a market cap above $100 billion, the company still has potential for considerable growth within its core business of restaurant delivery in markets around the world. Time will tell if the company’s ambitious vision proves prescient.
—Jason Del Rey and Andrew Nusca