DoorDash said on Tuesday that it’s launching a creator program that will compensate users for short-form videos posted on its app. The company also introduced “Going Out,” which rewards users for dining at local restaurants, along with new AI features.
DoorDash says short-form videos posted by local creators will let users preview dishes before they order them. Uber Eats started testing a TikTok-like short-form video feed last year to boost discovery and help restaurants showcase their dishes.
People in 20 U.S. cities — including Atlanta, Austin, Miami and San Francisco — can now apply to become a DoorDash Creator. Those accepted into the program will get a chance to record short videos of their meals from local restaurants, and then be compensated if their content qualifies. DoorDash didn’t share the monetization model for videos posted on its platform. The program will be launched in more cities through the end of the year.
DoorDash is also launching “Going Out,” a feature it’s been testing in select cities that lets DashPass members earn in-store rewards when dining at local restaurants.
“With Going Out, you can find and redeem exclusive in-app offers when you dine in and earn rewards just for coming back,” said Parisa Sadrzadeh, vice president of strategy and operations, at a press event on Monday. “This year, Going Out customers received an average of $9 in value per order when using offers.”
Rewards are now live at thousands of restaurants in select markets across the U.S. and Australia, DoorDash says. For a limited time, all DoorDash consumers can access the feature, not just DashPass members.
Users will also be able to book a reservation directly in the DoorDash app thanks to a new integration with SevenRooms, a company the delivery app acquired earlier this year.
As for the new AI features, the DoorDash app now offers personalized recommendations at the top of the homepage, taking into account the user’s past orders, budget preferences, dietary restrictions, time of day, and location.
A “Complement your Cart” section on the checkout page will suggest personalized additions to a user’s grocery cart. DoorDash says this will make it easier for customers to find relevant add-ons and complete their shopping list faster.
The app now also has AI smart tags that let users find what they’re looking for. These tags will appear on a restaurant’s menu so people can filter to find specific dishes, such as those that are vegetarian or high-protein.
“We’re looking at an individual restaurant item, and we use every piece of information we have. The customer reviews, the text from the merchant, the photo of the item, to start to infer things about those items,” Austin Haugen, DoorDash’s VP of product, said at the event. “So we can learn this item is vegetarian, this one is gluten free, spicy, high in protein, etc. Once we infer this about the items, you’ll start to see these tags around the app.”
These new tags will be available to users in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
DoorDash says that users can now browse nearby stores, compare prices, and view delivery estimates in one place when shopping for items like beauty products, electronics and pet supplies. This feature was previously only available when purchasing alcohol.
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