Latest news with #Symbiosys
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How DoorDash is evolving its retail media arm as ad revenue grows
This story was originally published on Marketing Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Marketing Dive newsletter. Delivery giant DoorDash last week announced the first acquisition to strengthen its advertising division with a $175 million deal for the ad-tech startup Symbiosys. Uniting the two companies, which have worked together for the better part of two years, highlights the growing importance of offsite ads for retail media networks that are reaching fresh levels of maturity and grappling more with limited on-platform inventory. Symbiosys assists brands in cracking into channels like search, social and display while helping retail media networks broaden their scope. It has largely focused on CPG companies, but DoorDash challenged the firm to apply the same approach to the small- and mid-sized restaurant brands that make up a large chunk of DoorDash Ads' business, which last year surpassed an annual revenue run rate of $1 billion (and includes Wolt Ads, part of its purchase of Finnish food delivery platform Wolt in 2022). DoorDash and Symbiosys have been building out restaurant offsite ads over the past eight months and are in the process of rolling those tools out as an extension of onsite product advertising, according to executives. Beyond addressing inventory challenges, the offsite frontier is a key piece of retail media networks' attempts to develop full-funnel advertising that extends beyond workhorse formats like sponsored search and product listings that can be difficult to differentiate. While retail media ad spending has soared at the category level, advertisers have become more vocal in demanding richer capabilities in relation to media and measurement, as well as greater transparency. 'We wanted to make sure we could continue building awareness and reaching customers at other touchpoints before they even come into DoorDash,' said Peter Giordano, general manager of DoorDash Ads' platform and growth services, when discussing offsite advertising. 'You can do a lot more branding and storytelling on TikTok and on YouTube than you certainly can with a sponsored product [ad] in a consumer app,' added Giordano later. The acquisition of Symbiosys, which had between 30-35 employees as of last year, is just one piece of DoorDash Ads' largest update since it launched nearly four years ago. As part of the changes, DoorDash Ads is also introducing a number of tools for restaurant marketers that leverage artificial intelligence (AI). This type of 'smart' targeting has been available for promotions since April, and 80% of new campaigns from small- and mid-sized merchants are already applying the feature, according to Giordano. Next steps involve porting the technology over to ad campaigns, including those running offsite. DoorDash Ads' longer-term roadmap positions automation to do much of the heavy lifting for the more than 150,000 advertisers that use its platform globally. Its approach mirrors how other digital advertising players, including Amazon and Meta, are investing in AI to streamline how campaigns on their sites are created, targeted and measured. 'The ultimate vision — and I'm using a restaurant advertiser here as an example — is [that] our platform will automatically and programmatically allocate their budgets across both ads and promotions, and within promotions across different promotion types,' said Giordano. 'We wanted to basically take all of the guesswork out of the equation for our advertisers.' In addition to the AI solutions, DoorDash Ads is implementing more robust interest-based targeting and category share insights for restaurant marketers using its ads manager, along with a report builder for tracking marketing spend and improvements to the ways merchants can reconcile their finances. For more general brands, it is enhancing its sponsored brand offerings in areas like video and expanding sponsored product ads in global search to better engage consumers looking for products in categories like alcohol and retail. Taken together, these upgrades intend to address several of the biggest asks retail media networks are hearing from brands, namely around streamlining and providing more concrete ways to track results as spending commitments continue to climb. 'We know that advertisers have a lot of options in retail media these days, and one thing that I think everyone keeps hearing is simplify, simplify, simplify,' said Giordano. 'The more that we can just drive performance for them through a very simple process, that's what we're really striving for.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
DoorDash purchases hospitality tech company SevenRooms
Online food ordering and delivery platform DoorDash has concluded the acquisition of the hospitality software provider SevenRooms. The US-based food delivery company states that the deal will bolster in-store sales, customer relationships and profitability for merchants by adding SevenRooms' CRM, reservations and guest experience tools to the DoorDash commerce platform. In May 2025, DoorDash agreed to acquire New York City-based SevenRooms for $1.2bn and UK competitor Deliveroo for £2.9bn ($3.8bn). SevenRooms will benefit from DoorDash's scale, resources and global reach. The company's leadership will join DoorDash to further develop its offerings. DoorDash vice-president of strategy and operations Parisa Sadrzadeh stated: 'We're building a platform that makes it easier for local businesses to grow — whether that's through delivery, pickup, reservations or in-person hospitality.' 'These capabilities reflect DoorDash's focus on empowering local businesses to deepen their relationships with customers, however they choose to connect - whether that's going out, ordering in or engaging through a merchant's own online stores. With SevenRooms, we will be able to keep supporting an open, partner-friendly ecosystem.' SevenRooms co-founder and head Joel Montaniel stated: 'We're excited to accelerate our mission to help hospitality operators around the world understand their guests, build deeper relationships and grow their businesses sustainably.' 'Together with DoorDash, we're providing restaurants and hospitality businesses with the tools to own their guest experience, grow their customer base and thrive both inside and outside their four walls. With shared core values, we're energised for our shared future as we bring continued innovation to market faster through a merchant-centric approach.' The acquisition comes shortly after DoorDash purchases ad tech startup Symbiosys for $175m, aimed at expanding its offsite advertising capabilities. Symbiosys offers a self-serve platform that allows advertisers to launch campaigns across channels including search, social, and display, while leveraging DoorDash's closed-loop measurement system. "DoorDash purchases hospitality tech company SevenRooms" was originally created and published by Verdict Food Service, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
DoorDash to Buy Symbiosys to Boost Its $1 Billion-a-Year Ad Unit
DoorDash Inc. is adding to its recent buying spree by acquiring advertising tech firm Symbiosys for $175 million, bolstering an ad business that now generates more than $1 billion annually. Symbiosys, founded by former Google ads product director Bashar Kachachi, lets retail brands run advertisements on major websites like Google search, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Acquiring the firm would allow DoorDash to offer its advertisers, which include more than 150,000 restaurants and consumer brands globally, to manage their ad placements on external sites like social media, in addition to the DoorDash app and website.
