Dive Brief:

• DoorDash has the largest market share of consumer spend in the food delivery industry, garnering 27.6% of the market just above Grubhub's 26.7%, according to a report from Edison Trends. Uber Eats is close behind with 25.2% of the consumer spend while Postmates has just over 12% of the market share.
• Compared to March 2018, DoorDash's total share of consumer spend was 15% and Grubhub dropped from 38% to 27%.
• Uber Eats leads the market in the number of food orders, however, with just under 30% of market share, but has the lowest price per transaction compared to its peers. DoorDash has a share of 26% of food orders, rising from 13% a year ago. Grubhub decline 12 points to 26% compared to 38% compared to March 2018.

Dive Insight:

Given DoorDash's rapid expansion — processing two times the amount of deliveries in 2018 compared to the previous four years of operation — it is no surprise that it is beginning to reflect in its market share of consumer spend. DoorDash became the first nationwide third-party delivery platform at the start of the year, rolled out a nationwide TV ad campaign and partners with 90% of the top 100 restaurant brands offering delivery. It continues to expand its reach among restaurant brands and launched a partnership with Papa John's on Wednesday. 

It also has plans to bring delivery to 90% of Americans this year, according to the Wall Street Journal. More expansion plans could be imminent with an additional $400 million, which brought the company's valuation to over $7 billion. Many have suspected that DoorDash would go public this year and is well positioned to do so.

While it has yet to lead the market in terms of the number of food orders, it has grown its share of food orders by 13% from a year ago. One of Uber Eats' biggest partners is McDonald's, which likely helps boost the number of food orders the company processes. 

While delivery companies grapple for more market share, their biggest competitors will actually be restaurants themselves. Restaurants still processed a majority of orders (70%) either through their apps or online while third-party apps generated 30% of digital orders. Many chains are also boosting their mobile capabilities to better compete against the third-party companies. Panera, for example, announced a $42 million investment in 2014, in part to improve its mobile ordering. Popeye's, Wingstop and Habit Burger have also announced during recent quarterly earnings moves that would better integrate their apps into their overall strategy. 

Delivery companies are working to integrate their technologies with restaurants, but give chains the option of providing their own delivery drivers, such as the case with Pizza Hut's recent pilot programs. These partnerships may be the way for delivery companies to eat into the share of digital orders that restaurants already process.