DoorDash said on Wednesday its revenue rose 38 per cent in the fourth quarter as it gained new US customers and added new services like restaurant reservations.
Investors cheered that growth, sending DoorDash’s stock up more than 13 per cent in after-hours trading.
But the San Francisco-based delivery company also warned of costly investments ahead. DoorDash CEO and co-founder Tony Xu said DoorDash is in the midst of building a single tech platform that will bring together its many international businesses. DoorDash bought Wolt, a Finnish delivery service, in 2022, and it acquired Deliveroo, a UK rival, last year.
Xu said the majority of the tech platform will be finished this year, and even before it is complete, the company will save money and time because it will be able to roll out updates to all of its markets at once. But in the meantime, Xu called the new platform “a massive and expensive undertaking”.
“I wish that the tech stack were already here,” Xu said during a conference call with investors on Thursday.
DoorDash said it expects adjusted pre-tax earnings between US$675 million and US$775 million in the first quarter, which was lower than the US$800.6 million Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
DoorDash also spent heavily during the fourth quarter on multiple projects, including the development of autonomous robot delivery and drone delivery. Its research and development costs rose 41 per cent, for example, while its sales and marketing costs jumped 31 per cent.
DoorDash’s net income rose 51 per cent to US$213 million, or 49 cents per share. That was lower than the 59 cent profit Wall Street anticipated.
DoorDash reported revenue of US$3.96 billion for the October-December period. That was also less than the US$3.99 billion that analysts forecast.
Still, total orders rose 32 per cent to 903 million, beating analysts’ forecast of 884.8 million, according to FactSet. DoorDash said it had more than 56 million active users during the quarter, including 35 million members paying monthly fees to be part of its DashPass, Wolt+ and Deliveroo Plus programmes.
Xu said customers have always used DoorDash for quick, midweek orders. But the company is increasingly seeing customers use DoorDash for bigger weekend grocery trips as well. DoorDash and Kroger, the largest US grocery chain, expanded their delivery partnership last autumn.
AP
