Partnership-palooza!
The vibe right now.? DoorDash vs. everyone else
The latest message I’ve been getting from large restaurant technology companies is an unexpected one: We’re (mostly) all friends now, they seem to say. Thanks to a DoorDash acquisition spree and rapid product iteration that’s threatening major players in restaurant tech from reservations services to customer relationship management platforms, everyone else seems very willing to play nice.
Almost a year ago, point of sale and payments company Toast made Uber Direct its default white-label delivery partner, using the service to fulfill delivery orders placed via Toast’s online ordering platform. Before that, restaurants were connected to DoorDash’s white-label delivery. In a confusing and … let’s say “dynamic” rollout, some restaurants were told they’d be switching providers from DoorDash Drive to Uber Direct. Later, at the time of the official announcement, the companies clarified that restaurants using Toast Delivery Services would continue to be able to choose between delivery partners. Despite the eventual clarification, the whole ordeal felt a bit chaotic.
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On Monday, Toast and Uber announced another similar-but-different strategic partnership they say will help restaurants drive guest demand. Together they promise to “deepen their integration to deliver innovations” to restaurants.
This time around, the language surrounding the announcement is a little easier to understand. I have to assume this is because top Uber competitor DoorDash has been moving at full speed to broaden its reach inside restaurants and pull even more diners into its ecosystem.
To paraphrase Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in his company’s third quarter earnings call on Tuesday: DoorDash, we’re coming after you.
The CEO didn’t actually say those words.
Again, I’m inferring. But as part of Uber’s quarterly earnings call, Khosrowshahi provided more detail than the companies’ joint release about how the Toast-Uber linkup will function: