DoorDash, Inc. (DASH) Earnings

Management highlights

### Core Business & Subscription Growth - DashPass, DoorDash's paid subscription program, saw one of its highest year-over-year paid subscriber growth rates in the last two years, with more subscribers added in the past 12 months than in the prior two years combined. - Higher DashPass penetration creates a self-reinforcing cycle: better product drives more adoption, increased usage drives more gross profit, which fuels further product investment. Consumer spend grows over time in historic cohorts across both restaurants and new verticals as penetration increases. ### International Operations & Integration - The vast majority of DoorDash's international business is either the market leader or a strong second place player gaining share across operating markets. - Ongoing unification of the global single tech stack is expected to deliver long-term benefits: best-in-class features are rolled out across all 41 markets, and future product updates will ship to all regions simultaneously after integration, increasing development velocity. Early benefits already include improved search conversion and more automated customer support flows. ### New Product & Technology Initiatives - AI development is focused on tangible customer and operational improvements, not technology for technology's sake. Key use cases include DoorDash Ask (an AI ordering agent that helps customers build grocery carts in under two minutes and discover new items), faster merchant onboarding via AI-powered catalog creation, and improved delivery routing. - Autonomous delivery (via the DoorDash Dot platform) is currently being tested at real scale in Phoenix, Arizona with tens of thousands of customers, with plans to reach high single-digit penetration in the test market by the end of 2026. DoorDash's proprietary autonomous platform manages route allocation across human and autonomous vehicles, and solves complex real-world operational challenges unique to last-mile delivery; the company prioritizes nailing product-market fit before scaling to new cities. - Dash Mart Fulfillment Services, which manages inventory in dedicated urban warehouses, has delivered strong initial results: 10x better order accuracy than traditional in-store grocery fulfillment, expanded available operating hours (near 24/7, versus traditional retail store hours) that increase incremental demand, and high customer satisfaction. - The company is developing a suite of B2B merchant tools including point-of-sale (POS) systems, reservations, and loyalty programs that integrate with the DoorDash marketplace, creating synergies between digital delivery and in-store merchant operations. ### Profitability Philosophy - Management prioritizes driving total profit dollar growth over optimizing for short-term margin or take rate targets. Efficiency gains across the business are consistently reinvested into high-ROI long-term growth initiatives.

Guidance

- New vertical (including grocery) business is on track to be gross profit positive by the end of 2026. - Management expects adjusted EBITDA to land within the previously guided range for Q3 2026, after Q2 2026 came in materially above guidance due to faster-than-expected unit economic improvements that could not be reinvested within the quarter. - Full year 2026 is still expected to deliver higher year-over-year adjusted EBITDA margin excluding Deliveroo, in line with prior expectations. - Net revenue margin (take rate) is expected to stay roughly flat quarter-over-quarter from Q2 2026 to Q3 2026, and decline slightly in Q4 2026 due to typical seasonal increases in Dasher costs in the fourth quarter.

Segment performance

No specific absolute financial values or segment revenue contribution percentages were explicitly shared in the provided transcript. Management noted that the core U.S. restaurant business saw accelerated year-over-year growth and improving unit economics. Grocery, the fastest growing marketplace vertical, is growing faster than the restaurant business and is on track to hit gross profit positive status by the end of 2026, with growing basket sizes, monthly active users (MAUs), order frequency, and retention. The international segment, including Deliveroo, is seeing accelerating year-over-year revenue growth, improving unit economics, market share gains in most operating markets (including the U.K. and Israel), and growing paid subscription penetration. The ads business is growing and contributed better-than-expected unit economics in Q2 2026.

Risks & headwinds

- Autonomous delivery development requires solving numerous complex, unproven operational and technological challenges in the physical world; successful commercialization and scaling is not guaranteed and will take significant time and execution effort. - Building new physical infrastructure for Dash Mart Fulfillment Services and global tech stack unification is operationally complex, with uncertain timelines for full returns on investment. - Forward-looking statements about future performance, growth, and product development are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations, as detailed in the company's prior SEC filings.

Analyst Q&A

• Q: What is DoorDash's outlook for the quality of international growth, given the perception that international expansion delivers lower quality earnings than domestic U.S. business? /

  A: Management's long-term goal is to become the global leader in local commerce. The vast majority of DoorDash's international markets have the company as leader or strong second place gaining share, including markets like Canada, Israel, and the U.K. All core metrics (MAU growth, order frequency, subscriber growth, gross profit, and contribution profit) are improving year-over-year across international markets, and there is long runway to expand B2B product offerings internationally. The underlying consumer cohort trends that drive profitability in the U.S. are also replicated in international markets, just at an earlier stage of maturity.

• Q: How is DoorDash approaching AI investment, and where is the company seeing clear ROI from AI spend? /

  A: DoorDash only invests in AI that delivers tangible improvements to customer experience, rather than investing in technology for technology's sake. Key use cases include: DoorDash Ask (the AI ordering agent that speeds up grocery cart creation), faster merchant onboarding via automated SKU catalog building, improved delivery routing, and conversational AI support for Dashers. Internally, AI is driving productivity gains across back-office functions including sales, finance, and marketing. Efficiency gains from AI are reinvested into other high-priority growth projects, and AI development has not led to broad hiring freezes or cuts.

• Q: What have been the early learnings from Dash Mart Fulfillment Services, and how will DoorDash balance growth and EBITDA growth in the second half of 2026? /

  A: Early results from Dash Mart Fulfillment Services are very positive: the model solves the core industry problem of inaccurate in-store inventory, delivering 10x better order accuracy, and 24/7 warehouse operation unlocks incremental demand that traditional grocery fulfillment cannot capture. For balancing growth and profitability, demand trends remain strong across all segments, with MAUs and DashPass subscriptions at all-time highs. The company's philosophy is consistent: continuously find efficiency gains across the P&L, and reinvest those savings into long-term growth initiatives (autonomy, global tech stack unification, merchant services) that are currently on budget and on plan. Management expects to deliver both ongoing top-line growth and increasing profit dollars.

• Q: What drove the material Q2 2026 adjusted EBITDA beat versus guidance, and is the full year 2026 margin outlook still on track? /

  A: The core restaurant business performed very strongly, with accelerated growth and better-than-expected unit economic improvements in the ads business and other segments. International operations including Deliveroo also beat internal volume and unit economic expectations, with contribution profit coming in ahead of plan. The beat was largely due to efficiency gains arriving later in the quarter, leaving insufficient time to reinvest the surplus into planned projects, so the extra margin fell to the bottom line. The full year 2026 outlook for higher year-over-year adjusted EBITDA margin (excluding Deliveroo) remains unchanged, and management expects Q3 2026 EBITDA to land within the original guided range.