Airbnb Inc. and DoorDash Inc. they became public almost to each other in late 2020, then entered the earnings stage for the first time as a pair on Thursday to report similar gigantic quarterly losses.
But here ends the similarities between the two. DoorDash shares rose more than 11% in trading after Thursday, while Airbnb shares rose after the pair reported earnings that looked much worse than they actually were due to the costs of offsetting strong stocks associated with IPOs. . And the outlook for Airbnb ABNB,
is much brighter than DoorDash DASH,
which can only be a pure pandemic piece that has become public at the top.
DoorDash, which delivers food from restaurants, grocery stores and small markets using independent contractors, gave a bleak outlook for 2021. The company reported a sharp $ 312 million loss in the fourth quarter, primarily due to offset costs. stocks associated with $ 322 million. its bid was released last year, though its revenue rose more than 200 percent to $ 970 million and was better than Wall Street expected.
Read more about DoorDash and Airbnb IPOs
As the number of vaccinations increases and blockages end in the United States, consumers can choose to go or drive to their favorite restaurants to take dining orders or dine outside as the weather improves – or indoors, if I can. DoorDash acknowledged this reality, but still predicted that gross order volume will increase sharply in 2021, to a range of $ 30.0 billion to $ 33.0 billion, from less than $ 25 billion in 2020.
“Our 2021 guide is based on an assumption of accelerated market reopening and return to in-store restaurants,” DoorDash chief financial officer Prabir Adarkar told analysts at the company’s earnings call. “Although we have seen many positive signals from consumers and markets that temporarily reopened during the pandemic, we recognize that full vaccination and reopening could lead to clearer changes in consumer behavior than current data would predict.”
DoorDash is also facing tightening on both ends of its business model: by restaurants that feel they are paying too much and by drivers that feel they are not getting enough payments and benefits. DoorDash executives said they did not expect commission ceilings set by 73 jurisdictions to remain at the “in-store” table, noting that they were linked to “emergency orders.” Executives said that even with the low worker protection measures introduced by California’s Proposition 22, the vast majority of the costs associated with the new law will be “absorbed” in the company’s balance sheet, while “passing them on to certain courts.”
DoorDash also intends to run more expensive campaigns for similar laws elsewhere.
On the other side of the spectrum is the Airbnb report. In Thursday’s results, Airbnb reported a loss of nearly $ 4 billion in the fourth quarter, but its 2020 revenue did not fall as much as the company’s executives had projected earlier this year. In the worst part of the pandemic, Airbnb had forecast investors that its 2020 revenue would likely come in half of 2019 revenue.
But, as it turned out, many people were stuck at home due to the pandemic, and managed to get a change of scenery by staying in an Airbnb rental, often just driving to a nearby city.
“In the face of the biggest crisis in the travel industry, our business has proven resilient, and our model has been able to adapt,” Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky told analysts. He said that in the last year, many people live more nomadic, due to their flexibility at work.
“Even though borders have been closed and international travel is reduced, many people have found long-term stays on Airbnb,” Chesky said. “Because they worked from home, they were flexible. Many people want to get in cars to travel nearby, staying in a local community. ”
Airbnb also had good news for Wall Street in terms of spending, noting that its sales and marketing spending, as a percentage of revenue in 2021, will be below 2019, a year in which it had high levels of marketing. Airbnb does better than other travel-focused companies. Expedia Group Inc. EXPE,
which owns rival VRBO, said earlier this month that it had a general upward trend in the fourth quarter, led by VRBO, but declined to disclose specific results to analysts. The online travel company reported a net loss and net income in the fourth quarter, which fell by about 64%.
Airbnb is configured to win if the pandemic continues and also if (or when) it ends. But DoorDash may have seen years of tablet growth in a few months, and what’s next is uncertain, no matter how confident its directors may have looked on Thursday.
The effect of the pandemic on certain businesses is clearly not as predictable as many thought. Given that the gradual launch of vaccines will help increase the number of trips and restaurants, it seems that Airbnb appears as another winner, while DoorDash could have experienced its peak.