What happened
Shares of takeout delivery service DoorDash (DASH -0.61%) continued to surge higher in Tuesday trading, adding to a three-day winning streak that appears to have been prompted by news that DoorDash may be going big in Japan.
As of 12:30 p.m. EST, DoorDash is trading 12.3% higher than it closed yesterday.
So what
On Friday last week, Nikkei Asia observed that DoorDash has begun advertising to recruit a general manager to run operations for it in Japan -- a virtually wide open market for food delivery, where 95% of restaurants have yet to set up home delivery services for their customers.
DoorDash is now 22% higher than it closed before Nikkei broke the story last week.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
Japan looks like a market tailor-made for DoorDash to thrive in. It's a highly urbanized society, in which distances from restaurant to customer will be short, and multiple customers can be serviced in any single delivery run. Sadly, it's also a market in which cases of coronavirus infection have been surging. Tokyo and nearby prefectures have begun declaring states of emergency and encouraging citizens to limit trips outside, and restaurants to close their doors early.
DoorDash is just the kind of company that could help make life more livable for Japanese residents in this situation, and the company is right to consider expansion at this time.
