DoorDash (DASH.US) expands advertising business and spends 175 million dollars to acquire advertising technology company Symbiosys

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the US takeaway platform DoorDash (DASH.US) announced the acquisition of advertising technology company Symbiosys for 1.75 US dollars, thereby further expanding its advertising business, which has already earned more than 1 billion US dollars this year. According to data, Symbiosys was founded by Bashar Kachachi, a former Google advertising product director, to help retail brands advertise on major websites such as Google Search, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. The acquisition will enable DoorDash to provide advertising management services on external websites (such as social media) for more than 150,000 restaurant and consumer brand advertisers around the world, complementing its advertising platform originally limited to DoorDash apps and official websites.

The deal comes as DoorDash announced an important update to its advertising business. According to a statement issued by the company on Wednesday, its advertising business achieved a breakthrough of more than $1 billion in annualized revenue in 2024. DoorDash also announced the launch of a new suite of advertising tools aimed at bringing more quantitative results to banner ads or sponsored content placed by brands on the home page, search results page, or checkout page of their platform.

DoorDash is best known for its takeout app, accounting for about two-thirds of the US market share. However, the company is actively expanding its business-oriented catering and brand tool business, as well as expanding its international takeout business. In May of this year, the company announced the acquisition of London-based takeaway company Deliveroo for around $3.9 billion and the takeover of restaurant technology company SevenRooms for $1.2 billion.

As marketers continue to shift ad budgets from traditional channels such as primetime TV and radio to digital channels, ad spend in online marketplaces continues to grow. According to market research firm eMarketer, the online advertising market is expected to reach US$166 billion this year, accounting for 21.6% of global digital advertising spending.

In addition to DoorDash's past, its rivals Uber (UBER.US) and Instacart (CART.US) also want a share in this area where profit margins are higher than their core delivery business. Uber said in May that the annualized revenue of its burgeoning advertising business had exceeded $1.5 billion in the first quarter of this year. The company announced a partnership with Instacart in April to provide advertising and analytics services to marketers in more FMCG sectors in the US, making the two companies directly compete with DoorDash in certain areas.

However, these companies have different strategies to compete for advertisers' marketing budgets. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company wants to push in-app ads related to their destinations when users use its travel services, and will also display sponsored ads in the Uber Eats interface. Meanwhile, most of Instacart's customers use the app for grocery shopping every week, and its advertisers pay more attention to “dining-centered” planned shopping ads. The advantage of DoorDash is its leading position in the “impulse consumption” category, such as convenience products and alcohol products.

DoorDash's vice president of advertising Toby Espinosa said that the acquisition of Symbiosys will enable small and medium-sized restaurants to connect to mainstream advertising networks owned by Alphabet (GOOGL.US) and Meta Platforms (META.US). He said, “We now have almost all the features that FMCG brands have on other retail media networks such as Instacart and Uber, and you can now use the same tools to activate advertising on our platform.”