DoorDash, the giant in food delivery, is quietly stepping beyond "food delivery" and entering the local life discovery and social networking arena. The company recently launched a new AI-driven social app called Zesty in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York, aiming to let users "not scroll through reviews, menus, or TikTok" but quickly find their ideal restaurants through natural language conversations.
The core of Zesty is a deeply personalized AI recommendation engine. After logging in (supporting one-click access with a DoorDash account), users can directly ask the built-in chatbot questions such as: "A quiet dinner place in Williamsburg that's really suitable for introverts" or "a romantic restaurant with a retro atmosphere." The system not only understands context and emotions but also continuously learns from users' past preferences, dynamically optimizing the recommendation results. The app also provides smart hints, like "breakfast spots suitable for gatherings" or "pet-friendly cafes," lowering the usage barrier.
Different from traditional review platforms, Zesty integrates social network logic: users can save and share restaurant recommendations, upload real photos and reviews, follow others' updates, and even form "food interest communities." Andy Fang, co-founder of DoorDash, revealed on X that Zesty's data sources span across DoorDash's own transaction data, Google Maps, TikTok content, and other platforms, using AI to aggregate and refine information, "selecting the most worth visiting places from the entire web."
This move marks the accelerated implementation of DoorDash's strategy to go "beyond food delivery." Earlier this year, the company had already launched dine-in booking and in-store points functions, and now Zesty further transforms it from a "fulfillment platform" into a "local life entry point." A DoorDash spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch: "We want to help people connect more easily with great experiences in their communities, and Zesty is an experimental platform for exploring the next generation of local discovery."
Of course, challenges should not be ignored — in the current situation where general AI like Google, ChatGPT, and Gemini can already provide restaurant recommendations, will users be willing to download a new app for a single scenario? However, for heavy food lovers or socially driven users, Zesty offers a new possibility: transforming "what to eat" from a decision burden into a lifestyle that is shareable, interactive, and has a sense of belonging.
