AI-driven startup Bites challenges DoorDash with lower-cost, direct restaurant ordering

In August, DoorDash sent a form letter to Bay Area eateries alerting them that they might have been added to the new platform Bites without their permission, warning of possible illegal practices. Bites, a pre-seed startup, markets itself as an "AI native" service that charges a flat $1 fee per order and routes orders directly to restaurants via ChatGPT, avoiding the 15-30% commissions charged by DoorDash. Founder Bala Subramaniam says the model lets restaurants keep menu prices down and retain full customer contact information.

Restaurateur Jay Jayaraman, who runs 13 venues on Bites, says about 65% of his orders now come through the startup, improving his margins compared with DoorDash. The clash underscores a broader shift as large language models become the primary interface for ordering, potentially eroding the discovery and advertising revenue that apps like DoorDash rely on.