DoorDash Inc Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Ross Sandler - Barclays Bank - Analyst : Hey, guys, Tony, thanks for the letter. All with some great new interesting stats in there. So I wanted to just start with some of these new penetration stats. So you're basically saying the funnel has like an 800 million person TAM and that your active shoppers are about 100 million. And that these active shoppers order about 7 million times per day. So I guess the question is, what's the bigger opportunity? Is it to increase the 7% frequency or the 12% penetration and what does the most penetrated market look like for these stats? Like, what's the north star on either frequency or penetration, which kind of move hand in hand. Thanks a lot.

Question: Ross Sandler - Barclays Bank - Analyst : Yes, thank you.

Question: Shweta Khajuria - Wolfe Research - Analyst : Thanks a lot for taking my questions. Let me try 2 please. Could you please talk about contribution profit margins, especially in your international markets. When we think about efficiency gains in logistics versus retention improvement versus frequency versus lowering costs for delivery? Where do you think there is greatest room for upside there as you think about that trajectory? And then the second question is just stepping back a little bit, what is, Tony, how do you think about 2025 and 2026? What are some of your goalposts for this year and how should we be thinking about it, especially as it relates to investments? Thanks a lot.

Question: Shweta Khajuria - Wolfe Research - Analyst : Thanks, Tony. Thanks, Ravi.

Question: Deepak Mathivanan - Cantor Fitzgerald - Analyst : Great. Tony, maybe I'll ask an autonomous vehicle question for you. Obviously the current cost structure of AVs does not make delivery a primary use case, but in a world, say in the next 5- to 10 years as personal vehicles sort of become increasingly autonomous and maybe can pick up food by themselves, how are you thinking about the potential opportunities and risk for that and how are you preparing for a navy world? And then our second question maybe for Ravi, can you give an update on Wolt? What are you seeing in some of the fast growing markets? Where does Wolt stand with respect to the new verticals product build out and penetration kind of in early 2025 in some of these key markets? Thank you very much.

Question: Deepak Mathivanan - Cantor Fitzgerald - Analyst : Great. Thank you both.

Question: Michael Morton - MoffettNathanson - Analyst : Hi there, thanks for the question. One for Tony and then one for Ravi. Ravi, in the prior 10-Q you called out international markets utilizing NOLs for the first time. I was wondering if you could talk a bit more maybe about some of the markets that are seeing this inflection in profitability, and then how far some other international markets could be behind those ones, utilizing the NOLs, so just curious on the curve there. And then for Tony, there's a lot of companies rolling out agents and assistants, it's no secret. And when it comes to e-commerce, there's a thought that as you could be changing the traditional search funnel, it's an opportunity to integrate local inventory, more seamless into the consumer shopping experience. So would love to hear how you're thinking about this opportunity and exploring potential partnerships in providing the infrastructure for these model and I would say upcoming search operators. Thanks guys. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 11, 2025 / 10:00PM, DASH.OQ - Q4 2024 DoorDash Inc Earnings Call

Question: Michael Morton - MoffettNathanson - Analyst : Thanks so much, guys.

Question: Bernie McTernan - Needham & Company - Analyst : Great, thanks for taking the questions. Just wanted to touch on bookings. So the acceleration for bookings, just wanted to know, what made 4Q so strong and any trends to point to, whether it's restaurant or non-restaurant. And then on the guide, thoughts on the deceleration 1Q, I think there's probably some headwinds with in 1Q is like leap year, California fires, FX, but just wanted to see kind of the core versus non-core as well, anything underlying going on. Thank you. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 11, 2025 / 10:00PM, DASH.OQ - Q4 2024 DoorDash Inc Earnings Call

Question: Bernie McTernan - Needham & Company - Analyst : Great, thank you.

Question: Nikhil Devnani - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. - Analyst : Hi there, thanks for taking my question. I have two on the US new verticals, please. So first, how much repeat buying behavior do you see with these newer categories? And I appreciate that aggregate cohort level metrics are probably more important, but it would be helpful to understand if you see repeat engagement or if demand is more episodic in nature. And then second, the letter talks about continued progress towards strong profitability in US new verticals. So how should we think about the scale that you need to get there? And when you think long term about what that eventual operating profit per order looks like, how does that compare in your minds to restaurant delivery? I'm sure it varies a lot by category, but any commentary you can provide there would be helpful. Thank you.

Question: Eric Sheridan - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Thanks so much for taking the question. Maybe building on the last question, I just want to go a little bit deeper in the state of the grocery side of the business. What were the key learnings over the last year that unlocked elements of either user growth frequency or supply? And when you think about the array of supply or frequency looking out over 2025 that isn't in your ecosystem, what do you see as some of the key investments to potentially unlock that potential and how does that inform against your strategic priorities? Thanks so much.

Question: Eric Sheridan - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Great, thank you.

Question: Jason Helfstein - Oppenheimer & Co. Inc - Analyst : Thanks. If I could ask two questions, just general thoughts on DashPass, I appreciate you sharing the growth rate and the numbers. Just I guess how do you think about the growth from here and any catalyst to potentially accelerate the growth. And then second, I think the math on GOV for MAU was up 6% in '24. I think it was up 8% in '23 if our math is right. Just maybe talk about the factors that would be impacting us, whether US,

Question: Jason Helfstein - Oppenheimer & Co. Inc - Analyst : Yeah, thank you.

Question: Ken Gorski - Wells Fargo - Analyst : Thank you very much. 2, if I may please. First, on advertising, you listed as the fifth area where you can build a great business. Could you speak please to the roadmap for the next 12- to 24 months? Do you feel you have the advertising product and the overall product experience ready to aggressively scale ads? And then the second question is more on dasher supply. Could you just talk about, one, bigger picture, how you see the Dasher supply environment and how you think it may evolve throughout the year. And then secondarily there, are you seeing a segmentation of kind of use cases where we're seeing and reading about Instacart and Uber beginning to differentiate between delivery and store and kind of pick and pack. Thank you very much.

Question: Ken Gorski - Wells Fargo - Analyst : Yeah, I was just talking about differentiating supply versus core delivery versus what we're seeing some more differentiation versus the pick and pack and it got to be in store versus delivery.

Question: Ken Gorski - Wells Fargo - Analyst : Thanks Tony.

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Great. Hey guys, thanks for taking my questions. Maybe two. The first one, I'd love to sort of dig into a little bit of the prioritization changes year on year. Tony, can you sort of talk to us about how your 25 budgeting and investment priorities or areas of capital allocation changed versus the start of 24? Yeah I'm trying to sort of think through where are you sort of investing more or less year on year just to sort of continue to maximize your multi-year free cash flow, dollar growth and frequency. And then the second one maybe a little bit of housekeeping, but just so we all get over our skis, how should we think about the pace of the buyback and sort of the cash balance or targeting or what is sort of the regulator on the pace of the buyback going forward? Thanks.

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Great. Thank you both.