DoorDashDASH

DoorDash brought in 4.45 billion dollars in revenue last quarter, which was better than analysts expected. Total orders jumped 27 percent to 970 million. While the company is still spending heavily on marketing and research to expand into new areas like grocery delivery, the core business is growing fast enough to support that spending. The stock rose about 2 percent after the report.

The most important detail for the long term is that the company expects this momentum to continue. It raised its forecast for gross order value, which is the total dollar amount of all orders placed through the app. This suggests that even as prices for food and delivery rise, customers are not cutting back on the convenience of having things brought to their door.

See the full quarter, and how our tracked metrics did

Source: 8-K filing

Key highlights

• Membership growth surges: Paid DashPass members, who pay a monthly fee for lower delivery costs, increased by more than they did in the previous 24 months combined. This loyalty is critical for the long term because members placed 75% of all grocery and retail orders this quarter, showing they are expanding their spending beyond just takeout.
• International business momentum: Marketplace gross order value, or the total dollar value of all orders, grew 36% to $33.1 billion, helped by the acquisition of Deliveroo. Even when excluding that purchase, the core business grew 23% compared to a year ago, proving the company can successfully expand into 40 different international countries.
• Non restaurant growth: Revenue from digital ordering services used by over 150,000 merchants grew more than 40% this year. Expanding into these new merchant services is working, as reservations booked through the marketplace jumped 150% from the previous quarter.
• Technology and robot testing: Research and development spending rose 52% to $535 million as the company builds a global technology platform and tests delivery robots. Management expects their land based robot, called Dot, to handle a high single digit percentage of orders in its largest test market by the end of this year.
• Profit outlook ahead: Management expects third quarter adjusted earnings, which is a measure of profit before certain costs like taxes and interest, to be between $950 million and $1.1 billion. This forecast targets growth from the $914 million earned this quarter, though they warned that higher insurance and seasonal driver costs will likely lower profits in the final months of the year.

Our take: This was a strong quarter that proved DoorDash can grow well beyond pizza and burgers. The massive surge in membership is the most important takeaway because those users spend more across groceries and retail, which secures the company's future as a general delivery leader. While spending on robots and international expansion is high, the 40% jump in adjusted profit shows the business is becoming more efficient as it scales.