DoorDash Just Dropped $175 Million on an “Ad” Company and Somehow Restaurants Still Have to Pay for It??

DoorDash Just Dropped $175 Million on an “Ad” Company and Somehow Restaurants Still Have to Pay for It??

DoorDash just bought a company called Symbiosis for a casual $175 million—because apparently, what’s a quarter billion between friends on a Wednesday?

Here’s the catch: Symbiosis lets DoorDash run ads for restaurants across Google, TikTok, etc. Sounds helpful, right?

Until you realize:

👉 DoorDash places the ad

👉 The customer clicks it

👉 They land on the DoorDash page

👉 The restaurant pays DoorDash for the ad AND pays DoorDash a commission when the order is placed

So let’s recap:

Restaurants are now paying DoorDash to advertise their own food, just so DoorDash can take another cut when the order comes in through... you guessed it, DoorDash.

That’s like your landlord asking you to pay rent and charging you every time you open your own fridge.

And the real kicker? DoorDash gets a firehose of new consumer data: what people clicked, when, what they almost ordered, what meme convinced them to try dumplings instead of tacos. That data’s the real goldmine.

Restaurants are footing the bill to give DoorDash more leverage against them.

And it’s all wrapped in this sweet-sounding “AI-powered marketing” bow. But let’s be honest: AI isn’t here to help restaurants thrive — it’s here to optimize how efficiently they can be squeezed.

Symbiosis? Nah. This looks more like parasitism with a better PR team.