DoorDash Wants to Own the Air Lane

DoorDash launched DoorDash Air after Part 135 certification, but has not named a first market, service date or aircraft specification.

Its software will choose among a Dasher, Dot robot, partner vehicle or drone based on the order; current drone checkout still depends on basket, address, daylight and weather limits.

DoorDash says three-to-five-mile orders were over 20% of 2025 volume and took nearly 25% longer, making small mid-range trips the clearest target for air delivery.

The FTC confirmed the probe, while Shein warned that a settlement or other outcome may require significant payments.

U.S. quarterly revenue fell 14.3% to $2.04 billion as the end of duty-free low-value parcels raised costs.

A reported $40–50 billion IPO target, versus $98.2 billion in 2022, now has to absorb tariffs, weaker profit and an unpriced regulatory bill.

Merchants can create catalog-backed messages with buttons, discount codes and keyword replies, then schedule them after Meta approves the template.

Explicit opt-in is mandatory, and availability excludes recipients in the US, China and several sanctioned regions.

Pricing is per message and varies sharply by market, so native workflow convenience does not remove channel costs or Meta's delivery control.

Blinkit keeps ₹141 from a ₹525 basket, then spends ₹60 on delivery and ₹80 on operating and fixed cost, leaving roughly ₹1 profit per order.

Zepto processes 2,071 orders per store per day, yet the ₹357 basket leaves only ₹7 after delivery and ends at a ₹59 loss per order.

Instamart has a ₹504 net basket but much lower store utilization, so ₹103 of overhead turns its better basket into a ₹76 loss.

The 2028 forecast leaves YouTube last, TikTok in the middle and Facebook 9.3× ahead on advertising revenue per user.

Reach is not the constraint: over 1.7 billion people watched World Cup-related videos, including 550 million on televisions.

YouTube still surpassed $60 billion across ads and subscriptions in 2025, so the weakness is ad yield—not total commercial scale.

Claude peaked roughly 15% above April in June and remained about 11% above by July 19, while Amazon.com kept roughly a 4% gain.

Google ended near baseline, ChatGPT about 7% below, Gemini roughly 6% below and Perplexity around 36% below — different momentum, not one replacement cycle.

Similarweb’s wider research says the market is fragmenting, so traffic, citations, referrals and conversions need separate measurement.

Productrise tracking found shopping listings on 23% of Google AI Mode shopping queries versus 88% in standard search, leaving merchants with a discovery gap as users move into AI answers.

ChatGPT and Roblox may be designated very large online platforms under the European Union’s Digital Services Act, extending its toughest risk and transparency duties to AI and gaming ecosystems.

Meta’s quarterly expenses grew faster than revenue as AI infrastructure, legal costs and restructuring weighed on otherwise strong advertising performance.

Microsoft Azure passed $100 billion in annual revenue, while record $41 billion quarterly capital spending cut free cash flow by 23%.

Amazon now requires third-party sellers to tag listing images containing photorealistic AI-generated people, turning disclosure rules into immediate catalog governance.

New York’s synthetic-performer law requires clear labels on ads using synthetic people when they reach state consumers, forcing fashion brands to make AI production auditable.

Whatnot is reportedly discussing a funding round at roughly a $20 billion valuation, testing whether investors now see live shopping as a scaled marketplace model.