doordash-competitors

DoorDash Competitors

Business / By / February 21, 2023

DoorDash is an online food ordering and delivery platform founded by Tony Xu, Stanley Tang, Andy Fang, and Evan Moore in 2013. Together with its subsidiaries, DoorDash has a 56% market share in food delivery and a further 60% in the convenience delivery sector.

DoorDash reported it had more than 20 million active users and processed $9.9 billion in gross order volume during the first quarter of 2021. While these are impressive figures in isolation, it should be noted that the platform struggles in large American cities such as Boston, New York City, Chicago, and to a lesser extent Los Angeles. The company also faces competition across the many international markets it operates in.

Uber Eats

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Uber Eats is a three-sided marketplace connecting a driver, a restaurant owner and a customer with Uber Eats platform at the center. The three-sided marketplace moves around three players: Restaurants pay commission on the orders to Uber Eats; Customers pay the small delivery charges, and at times, cancellation fee; Drivers earn through making reliable deliveries on time.

No analysis of DoorDash competitors would be complete without first mentioning Uber Eats. 

After DoorDash, Uber Eats is the largest provider of food delivery services in the United States with a 24% market share.

Uber Eats is a significant threat because of parent company Uber and the infrastructure it developed for the rideshare industry. Coupled with a penchant for innovation and beneficial partnerships, this has allowed Uber’s diverse product portfolio to thrive and reach a global audience.

Grubhub

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Grubhub is an online and mobile food ordering and delivery platform connecting diners with local restaurants. The platform was created by Mike Evans and Matt Maloney as an alternative to paper menus in 2004.

Since it was founded, Grubhub has made several important acquisitions. These include food delivery company DiningIn, corporate food delivery company Aliso Viejo, and the Yelp-owned home-delivery brand Eat24. 

At the time of writing, Grubhub had a 15% market share in the United States.

Postmates

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Postmates is a food delivery service built as a last-mile delivery service platform connecting locals with shops. Postmates makes money by collecting fees (commission, delivery, service, cart, and cancellation fees). It also makes money via its subscription service (called Unlimted – $9.99/month or $99.99 annually) giving free delivery on every order of more than $12.

Postmates is a food delivery service with a particular focus on quick-commerce. The platform delivers food, groceries, alcohol, and virtually any other conceivable item to homes and businesses. 

Postmates delivery fees tend to be higher than those offered by DoorDash. However, the company does deliver 24/7 and to any location.

Uber acquired Postmates for $2.65 billion in December 2020, effectively bolstering its food delivery market share in the U.S. to approximately 29%.

Seamless

Powered by Grubhub, Seamless is an online food ordering service allowing customers to order restaurant food from a website or mobile.

The platform offers new users a two-week trial period, where they can also use gift vouchers and coupons to order from some of the largest restaurant chains in North America.

As the name suggests, Seamless prides itself on being easy to use. Food categories are represented by visible icons, with clear and transparent information regarding the checkout process, delivery estimates, customer reviews, and minimum order fees (if applicable).

Waitr

Waitr is a prepared food delivery company founded by Christopher Meaux in 2008.

Meaux created the Waitr platform after pitching the idea at the Seed Center Business Incubator in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Waitr quickly spread across Louisiana and the southern United States where it has remained a dominant force ever since. 

Waitr was purchased by billionaire Tilman Fertitta in a $308 million reverse takeover in 2018. Later that year, Waitr acquired Minneapolis-based restaurant food delivery service Bite Squad for $318 million.

Today, Waitr’s hyperlocal approach helps the company deliver a level of service for merchants and buyers that is sorely lacking in larger DoorDash competitors.

Key takeaways:

  • DoorDash is an online food ordering and delivery platform founded by Tony Xu, Stanley Tang, Andy Fang, and Evan Moore in 2013. In North America, the company has a 56% market share in food delivery and a further 60% in the convenience delivery sector.
  • Uber Eats is the main DoorDash competitor, leveraging its pre-existing ride share infrastructure and international reach. Uber Eats was also strengthened by the acquisition of rival service Postmates in late 2020.
  • Thanks to multiple acquisitions, Grubhub is the third-largest player in the United States food delivery industry. Seamless and Waitr are smaller competitors known for their intuitive platform and exemplary customer service, respectively.

Read Next: DoorDash Business Model, Uber Eats Business Model, Postmates Business Model, Food Delivery Business Models, Last-Mile Delivery Industry, Uber Competitors, Starbucks Competitors, Coca-Cola Competitors, Pepsi Competitors, Disney Competitors, Peloton Competitors, IBM Competitors, Google Competitors, Airbnb Competitors, Salesforce Competitors, Nike Competitors, YouTube Competitors, Zoom Competitors, Tesla Competitors, Amazon Competitors.

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Uber Eats vs. DoorDash

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DoorDash Financials

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DoorDash generated over $6.5 billion in revenue in 2022 and over $1.3 billion in net losses for the same period.

DoorDash Employees

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In December 2022, DoorDash announced the mass layoff of 1,250 employees, bringing the employees from 8,600 in 2021 to 7,350 at the end of 2022.

DoorDash GOV

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DoorDash defines its Marketplace GOV as the total dollar value of Marketplace orders completed in its local logistics platform, including taxes, tips, and any applicable consumer fees, including membership fees related to DashPass. In 2022, DoorDash GOV was over $53 billion, vs. almost $42 billion in 2021.

Is Uber Eats Profitable?

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Uber Eats’ EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) – which measures a company’s operational efficiency – was negative for $348 million in 2021, compared to over $870 million in negative EBIDTA in 2020 and over $1.3 billion negative EBIDTA in 2019.

Uber Eats Revenue

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In 2021, Uber Eats passed $8.3 billion in revenue, compared to $3.9 billion in revenue in 2020.

How Much Does Uber Eats Pay?

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In general, a Uber Eats rider might make anywhere between $15-20 an hour in the US. Uber Eats has a take rate of 17-20% on each order placed by the customer. Uber Eats riders’ hourly rates can vary based on geography and route availability.

Read Next: Uber Eats Business Model, McDonald’s Business Model, OpenTable Business Model, Amazon Business Model, TripAdvisor Business Model.

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About The Author

Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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