US food delivery firm DoorDash Inc is launching its services in Japan. The SoftBank-backed delivery company will be joining other services that have crowded the market during the COVID-19 pandemic. DoorDash, however, is limiting its service to certain prefecture only for the time being.
According to Reuters‘ report, Doordash will be available in the city of Sendai in Miyagi prefecture for starters. The launching in Japan is a continuation of its expansion to Canada and Australia.
Upon the news, Chief Executive Tony Xu explained, “Our strategy has always been to empower local economies, especially in the suburban markets that are historically underserved, yet the appetite for connectivity between merchants and customers is high”.
Other than DoorDash, SoftBank already backs some of the largest delivery services in Japan. Among them are Uber Eats from Uber Technologies Inc and Demae-can Co Ltd.
DoorDash itself is pretty confident about its future achievement. The company raised its forecast for annual gross order value last month. The company proceeded to raise its forecast as stimulus checks have kept food delivery demand resilient in the first quarter. Accordingly, delivery demand remained strong despite accelerated vaccination.
Furthermore, DoorDash has added deliveries from grocery and convenience stores feature since last year. The additional services brought quarterly revenue for DoorDash to go triple higher to $1.08 billion.
DoorDash has been noting a surge in order volumes during the pandemic. The surge is highly likely due to consumers shifting to delivery services instead of going out.
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