Hacker News
points by nonethewiser 11 hours ago | 0 comments
The Doordash acquisition of Instacart increases competition. You are missing something fundamental if you think "2 services becoming one means less competition."

Doordash attempted to buy Instacart in 2021 for $40-50B dollars. Since then Instacart has lost market share and value, and Doordash is now acquiring them for $17B.

The real competitors to Doordash and Instacart for grocery delivery are not each other. The competitors are Walmart, Amazon, and local grocery chains (Meijer, Kroger, etc). And guess what? These competitors are winning. Amazon, Walmart, and Kroger alone comprise a majority of grocery delivery (~64% in 2025, per an emarketer FAQ on digital groceries).

[–] troupo 11 hours ago
> increases competition. You are missing something fundamental if you think "2 services becoming one means less competition."

"When there are fewer competitors it means there's increased competition" is quite the take.

> The real competitors to Doordash and Instacart for grocery delivery are not each other.

Together they will have ~80% of the market.

[–] nonethewiser 11 hours ago
>"When there are fewer competitors it means there's increased competition" is quite the take.

I think it's quite obvious that mergers can increase competition. Especially when you read the rest of my comment. Can you steelman what I'm saying?

>Together they will have ~80% of the market.

Are you mixing restaurant delivery (~60% for doordash) with grocery delivery (~20% for instacart)? Those are different market shares.