DoorDash is launching a creator program that will pay users to post and feature short-form videos in its app as part of efforts to fix food delivery’s discovery issue, the company tells The Information. The company also plans to roll out new AI-powered tools for diners to discover restaurants while people are dining in or planning where they want to eat out with friends. The push marries friends-style recommendations with loyalty and personalization, as the company looks to increase both delivery and on-premise visits.
The stakes are high. Third-party delivery has turned into as much a discovery engine as it is a logistics network, and richer content is ever more linked to conversion. DoorDash controls about two-thirds of U.S. meal delivery sales, providing the company with a large canvas to test shoppable video and algorithmic merchandising at scale, Bloomberg Second Measure said.
Local Discovery is Focus of Creator Program
The new program is now open for applicants in 20 cities including Atlanta, Austin, Miami and San Francisco, with more markets planned throughout the year. With the feature, approved creators will be able to capture snackable clips of dishes at local restaurants; qualifying material will be paid for by TikTok (it did not share details on the payout model).
The approach reflects a wider move toward shoppable video in food and commerce. Uber Eats has also flirted with a TikTok-style feed in an effort to make it easier for users to discover new foods from menus, while sites like Instagram and YouTube alike have made short-form content central to product recommendations. For restaurants, video could reduce decision friction by depicting the portion size, texture and plating of a dish before a customer taps order.
Expect performance-based mechanics to matter. A lot of creator marketplaces mix engagement and attributable sales, including content that results in add-to-cart and repeat orders. Clear labeling, strict compliance with the endorsement guidelines of the Federal Trade Commission and vigilant content moderation will be essential to maintain consumers’ trust and avoid food-safety or allergen misinformation.
Dine-In Rewards From DoorDash’s Going Out Feature
Going Out was in testing and rewarded users with in-store value from nearby participating restaurants. DoorDash says members who took advantage of the offers received around nine dollars in value in each order on average. The program is available live in thousands of restaurants throughout the United States and Australia, and for a limited time to all users (you don’t even have to be a DashPass subscriber).
Reservations are now bookable through the app itself, using SevenRooms, as opposed to being opened in a new browser window. That pairing of offers to native booking has the potential to shrink the loop between discovery and dine-in or delivery, something that increases customer lifetime value and gives operators visibility into off-premise and on-premise behavior in one system.
AI Drives Personalization and Search Across the App
Now, new AI recommendations appear at the top of the app’s homepage — calibrated to a user’s ordering history, budget preferences, dietary needs, time of day and location. The aim is to reduce the amount of time spent browsing before one commits, particularly at peak meal times when choice overload is greatest.
A Complement Your Cart section at checkout recommends relevant add-ons for grocery and convenience orders, acting as an intent-aware upsell. For consumers, it rounds out a list; for merchants, it can nudge higher-margin items without requiring users to backtrack through category pages.
AI smart tags are now applied to menu items based on signals from customer reviews, merchant descriptions and item images a customer uploaded. The combination of natural language processing and computer vision transforms unstructured menu data into filters that narrow competitors to help target search results. The tags are being introduced in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Retail Browsing and Price Comparison Features Expand
And in addition to looking at restaurants, users can see nearby stores, compare prices and obtain delivery estimates for product categories like beauty, electronics and pet supplies — a feature previously available only for alcohol. Pulling all retail browsing into a single view, it gives the app an opportunity to snatch convenience sales that might have otherwise fallen prey to big-box click-and-collect competitors or pharmacy chains.
The betting field, more broadly, is coalescing around similar playbooks. Instacart has doubled down on AI search and shoppable recipes, while commerce platforms are wooing creators with affiliate tools. DoorDash’s edge is frequency; its high-order customer base creates a reliable feedback loop that can make personalization quantifiably stronger, and can serve as a signal for which creator clips should receive top priority.
Key Metrics to Watch as Video and AI Features Roll Out
As the creator program grows, watch for metrics such as video-to-order conversion, retention of diners who burned in-store offers and the percent of orders influenced by smart tags. The most important thing for restaurants will be if video and AI discovery boost new customer acquisition without eating into margins from discounting them too much.
Execution risks linger: content moderation at scale, fair distribution for small independent eateries and clarity on how creators are paid and credited for sales. If DoorDash can thread those needles, it will bring closer together a single platform where social discovery, dine-in loyalty and on-demand logistics all help each other.
