It’s no secret that DoorDash is one of the top, if not the top, restaurant delivery service. What is their market share, and how has this changed over time?
We’ll examine DoorDash’s growth and market share within this competitive and growing industry.
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As of January 2022, DoorDash had secured 58% of the United States’ on-demand food delivery business, more than twice the market share of their closest competitor, Uber Eats. DoorDash’s market share has rapidly and steadily increased since their founding less than a decade ago in 2013, in Palo Alto California.
DoorDash Market Value
DoorDash’s market share is even more impressive when you compare them to their competitors. The company with the second highest market share in 2022, Uber Eats, had less than half of the market share claimed by DoorDash, with a still respectable 24% of the market.
Many on-demand food delivery services, including both DoorDash and Uber Eats, have been gaining not only more customers and more orders, but significantly higher dollar amounts per order, as well. These factors have grown the market value of the industry significantly.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the average sale per customer at DoorDash was 104% greater than the same period two years earlier. The same comparison for Uber Eats showed a 72% increase in average sale per customer.
DoorDash went public in 2020 and soon had a valuation on the New York Stock Exchange of approximately $72 billion, although at that time the company actually still had not claimed a profit. DoorDash’s current market cap is currently approximately $32.55 billion, but changes frequently.
In the U.S., the on-demand food delivery industry was estimated to be worth a total of approximately $18.5 billion in 2020, and is estimated to expand to $33.7 billion by the year 2026.
The overall value of the on-demand food delivery market, worldwide, was estimated to be approximately $111.32 billion in 2020, and is projected to grow to $154.34 by 2023.
Although they started out small and local, DoorDash wasted no time in growing very, very quickly.
DoorDash started in 2013 as student project by a small group of college students in Palo Alto. Originally named Palo Alto Delivery, the founding students did all of the initial deliveries themselves.
After receiving $120,000 in seed money from Y-Combinator, Palo Alto Delivery was renamed DoorDash and began their strong and steady market share ascent. Within its first year, DoorDash had already received $2.4 million in funding, and the company was growing by a shocking 20% every week.
In 2016, DoorDash had a respectable approximately 5% of the national on-demand food delivery market share.
In 2017, their market share increased to 8%, and in 2018 it climbed to 15%.
DoorDash’s Rapid Dominance
By 2019, DoorDash’s market share had rocketed to 27.9% of the on-demand delivery sector, making it the largest on-demand delivery company within a period of only six years from when it was founded by a small group of students in Palo Alto.
By that year, DoorDash had overtaken both Uber Eats and Grubhub as the clear leader in the on-demand food delivery sector.
This was just the beginning, however, of DoorDash’s stratospheric growth.
By 2020, DoorDash’s lead over the competition reached into the double digits. At that point, DoorDash claimed 45% of the on-demand food delivery business.
In 2021, DoorDash’s dominance continued, now claiming approximately 57% of the market share, which was more than twice the market share of their closest competitor, Uber Eats.
The numbers are still coming in for 2022, but there is no indication so far that DoorDash will do anything but gain or maintain their supremacy in the on-demand or online food delivery sector.
So far, as of January 2022, DoorDash claims 58% of the industry market share, still well over twice as much as Uber Eats, the next closest competitor.
Buyouts, Partnerships, and Consolidation
With the fight for market share continuing, several of the top players in the industry have been considering or actively working on buyouts or major partnerships. These could either change or exaggerate the differences in market share amongst the companies in this field.
For example, Uber has partnered with Costco for same day delivery, acquired Drizly, an alcohol delivery company, and also acquired competitor Postmates toward the end of 2020.
DoorDash is still ahead, having partnered with Albertsons, CVS, many convenience store chains, and even credit card company Chase, as well as launched its own alcohol delivery service, and also is reported to have started discussing buying the competitor Instacart.
By executing disciplined and focused strategies, DoorDash has impressively grown from a small student-created project to the dominant company in their industry.
They have continuously worked at solving the problems that matter for all of their audiences, marketed these solutions clearly and effectively, and also focused on gaining footholds by filling in gaps not adequately serviced by their competitors.
From there, they have been able to adapt quickly, take advantage of opportunities that arise, and also increase goodwill by using their platform to help communities when possible.
These factors have combined to take the student-founded company from the $120,000 in seed money it first received in 2013, to a company with 5% of the market share in 2016, to the company that boasted 58% of its industry’s market share as of January 2022, (more than double the market share of its closest competitor).
By January 2022, DoorDash dominated the United States’ on-demand food delivery business, with 58% of the market share, which was more than twice the market share of Uber Eats, the closest competitor. Since DoorDash’s founding in 2013, their market share has grown phenomenally.