By Granth Vanaik and Waylon Cunningham

May 1 (Reuters) - DoorDash ( DASH ) projected

second-quarter core profit below expectations on Wednesday

despite beating first-quarter revenue estimates, indicating that

higher costs were offseting some of its gains from rising

groceries and food orders.

The online delivery firm has been forced to increase minimum

pay for its delivery workers after New York City and Seattle

came up with new regulations.

"When I look at the business from Q4 to Q1, costs did go

up," said CFO Ravi Inukonda in an interview with Reuters, adding

that the company passed on some fees to consumers.

DoorDash ( DASH ) expects adjusted earnings before tax, interest,

depreciation, and amortization between $325 million and $425

million, the mid-point of which is below an estimate of about

$393.8 million, according to LSEG data.

The company said the new regulation made its platform "less

accessible and less flexible" for the people who used to

generate income in those cities and reduced total orders by less

than 1% in the quarter.

"The absorption of cost is going to weigh as we go through

the rest of the year," Inukonda said.

GAINED MORE MARKET SHARE IN THE QUARTER

DoorDash ( DASH ) has been trying to branch out of its core food

delivery business into newer verticals such as grocery, retail

and alcohol in a bid to attract more customers to its platform.

Its total orders rose 21%, to 620 million in the quarter.

Inukonda said DoorDash ( DASH ) has gained market share in "virtually

all lines of business" across the 30 countries it operates in.

He said the grocery business was the fast-growing aspect of

the business, with grocery orders doubling from last year.

DoorDash's ( DASH ) gross order value - a key industry metric showing

total value of all app orders and subscription fees - was up by

21%, to $19.24 billion in the first quarter.

The company expects second-quarter GOV to be between $19

billion and $19.4 billion.

Its first-quarter revenue rose over 23%, to $2.51 billion,

compared to expectations of about $2.45 billion.

Net loss narrowed to $23 million, or 6 cents per share,

compared to $161 million, or 41 cents, a year earlier.