DoorDash Enters Restaurant Reservation Wars

- DoorDash is entering the restaurant reservation space not by acquiring Resy and OpenTable, but through a $1.2 billion acquisition of the restaurant tech platform SevenRooms. - This move places DoorDash in direct competition with the long-standing market leader, OpenTable, which is owned by Booking Holdings and serves over 55,000 restaurants globally. - Another key competitor is American Express, which owns Resy and recently acquired Tock for $400 million, merging the two to create a combined network of approximately 25,000 venues. - The SevenRooms acquisition is part of DoorDash's broader strategy to create an all-encompassing service for restaurants, combining its dominant 67% market share in food delivery with dine-in reservation capabilities. - DoorDash has a history of expanding its services through major acquisitions, including the purchase of Finnish delivery company Wolt for $8.1 billion and the British food delivery service Deliveroo for $3.9 billion. - By integrating SevenRooms, DoorDash can offer restaurants a way to connect their delivery and dine-in data, providing a more complete picture of customer behavior and enhancing loyalty programs. - The restaurant reservation market has seen significant growth, with about 19% of U.S. sit-down restaurants using an online reservation system by mid-2024, up from 13% in 2022. - This intensified competition among platforms may benefit restaurant owners by providing more options and potentially better pricing, as companies vie for their business with different models, such as monthly fees versus per-diner charges.