2019 was a banner year for DoorDash. We made progress towards our mission of empowering local economies by providing access to opportunity for Merchants, Dashers, and Consumers: we connected more Consumers in more communities to the best of their neighborhoods; we provided more Dashers more economic opportunity through increased earnings and greater transparency, and we created more ways for more Merchants to grow their business.
There’s a lot more to do, and we’re super excited by what 2020 has in store. But for now, let’s take a look at how we got here.
Connecting More Consumers in More Communities to the Best of Their Neighborhoods
At the start of 2013, DoorDash was only in California — fast forward, and today we serve all 50 states in the United States. In 2019, we also launched in Puerto Rico and Australia and expanded into even more markets in Canada.
- We launched in our 100th Canadian market, and DoorDash now serves all provinces in Canada, covering 60% of the population.
- We expanded down under in September into our first city outside North America in Melbourne, followed by a November launch in Sydney. Today, DoorDash reaches 40% of Australians nationwide.
- We launched in Puerto Rico, our first predominantly Spanish speaking market, and now cover 75% of the population.
- We made it more affordable for more consumers to enjoy DoorDash through DashPass — our subscription service which offers zero delivery fees to thousands of restaurants — with more than 1.5 million customers now using the service.
- We partnered with Wyndham to connect consumers nationwide with on-demand food access by powering on-property delivery service to more than 3,700 hotels across the nation.
Creating More Ways for More Merchants to Grow their Business
Every day, we seek to bring renewed vitality to brick-and-mortar restaurants all across the world, and by serving merchants, we serve our customers and Dashers. Our leadership in selection is key to our overall market leadership, and we continue to attract new merchants to our platform by creating more ways for merchants to grow their business. We have over 310,000 active stores, up from 200,000 at the beginning of 2019, offering our customers more choices than ever before.
- In June, we announced our exclusive partnership with Chili’s Grill & Bar and parent company, Brinker International. With 80% of Chili’s stores located in the suburbs, the leading fast-casual restaurant chain chose us due to our strong geographic reach across their suburban markets and quality delivery operations.
- In July, we announced the acquisition of Caviar — a coveted brand with premium restaurant selection and leading technology. This acquisition underscored our strategic focus on selection, enabling us to partner with more merchants and cater to even more food preferences and occasions.
- Also in July, we announced a new partnership with McDonald’s, and have since rolled out McDelivery to nearly 10,000 restaurants nationwide, covering over 70% of the U.S.
- In September, we launched exclusively with Outback, enabling Outback to reach new customers and serve its existing customers in new ways.
- Throughout the year, we continued to partner with restaurants that are beloved destinations within their neighborhoods and communities, like Bay Cities Italian Deli and Bakery and Jon & Vinny’s in LA, Honey Butter Fried Chicken in Chicago, Pat’s King of Steaks in Philly, Roberta’s Pizza in Brooklyn, Oporto in Sydney and JOEY in Toronto.
- We powered delivery fulfillment for 40% of the top 50 largest restaurant chains in the country through DoorDash Drive, our white label fulfillment platform. We also expanded on our grocery offerings via Drive by partnering with leading grocers, Wegmans and Mercato, powering the delivery of Wegmans items in 50% of stores and 95% of Mercato’s volume.
- We continued to expand our pickup feature enabling customers to order ahead, skip the line, and pick up conveniently with no delivery fees. In 2019, we added a new map feature to our app, enabling customers to quickly discover restaurants near them for pick up. In just over a year some of our most popular national merchants have signed on to offer pickup, including The Cheesecake Factory, Chili’s Grill & Bar, and Buffalo Wild Wings.
Providing More Economic Opportunity to Dashers
In response to feedback from our community, we announced a new pay model in August. We pledged that on average Dashers would earn more money from DoorDash and more money overall under the new model — and that we would hold ourselves accountable to that pledge. We began rolling out the new model in September, and we have since been collecting feedback from Dashers to help us assess what’s going well and where we can improve.
- Dashers are earning more money on average under our new model. An independent third party, economic research and consulting firm Beacon Economics, analyzed average hourly earnings for Dashers in August 2019 (the last full month when all Dashers were on the old pay model) and average Dasher earnings in October 2019 (the first full month when all Dashers were on the new pay model).
- Beacon determined that the amount that DoorDash pays U.S. Dashers increased by 12.5% on average, and overall Dasher earnings (including tips) increased from an average of $17.24 per active hour in August to $18.54 per active hour in October.
- We also made strides to enhance the Dasher experience in other ways, launching the Dasher Community Council to ensure Dasher voices are heard at our headquarters, increasing the transparency of Dasher earnings by providing earnings breakdowns in the app, and becoming the first national platform to ensure that all workers are covered by Occupational Accident Insurance if they’re injured on the job.
Giving Back to Local Communities
We’re proud to bring greater economic opportunity to the cities and towns where we operate, but we also bear a greater responsibility to our community. That’s why we’ve expanded existing programs designed to reduce food waste and combat food insecurity and launched groundbreaking programs to support new Americans. We’re thrilled to see the impact we’ve made on issues that we and our community care about so deeply.
- We’ve rescued more than 1.8 million pounds of excess food through Project DASH, our flagship social impact program that leverages our logistics expertise to tackle the dual epidemics of hunger and food waste.
- In 2019, we launched a partnership with mRelief — a startup nonprofit focused on helping people access food stamps. In February, DoorDash and mRelief teamed up to offer DoorDash credit to those eligible for food stamps in San Francisco. An analysis over a 6-month period showed that DoorDash credit reduced the costs of engagement to finalize SNAP documents submitted by 25%. The success of our pilot in San Francisco has enabled mRelief to scale its partnership with DoorDash throughout California and Illinois.
- We launched Kitchens Without Borders, a social impact initiative dedicated to supporting immigrant and refugee-owned food businesses. In March, we launched with 10 San Francisco Bay Area food businesses and have since expanded the program to 250 cities in the U.S. and Canada. 75% of customers who ordered through KWB discovered a new restaurant they hadn’t tried before, and 99% of Kitchens Without Borders merchants said they would recommend the program to other immigrant restaurant owners.
- DoorDash joined the National Immigration Forum and Tent Partnership for Refugees in opposing a proposed policy that would prohibit asylum-seekers in the U.S. from working while their cases are pending. This issue is important to us because it’s relevant to many of the DoorDash merchants we partner with, as countless recent immigrants — including those seeking asylum — find meaningful work in restaurants and as Dashers.
It was a busy year! We believe in getting 1% better every day, so we know there’s a lot we can improve on. We’re working hard at making sure our platform continues to create access to opportunities for Merchants, Consumers, and Dashers in 2020.
Empowering Local Economies in 2019 was originally published in DoorDash on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.