Zomato success story: Small cities make big order as food delivery platform goes global

Do you know that Indore requests more midnight deliveries than Mumbai or 70 per cent of online food delivery platform Zomato`s regular users in Kolhapur had never tried food delivery in their life -- even over a phone call? 
While Ooty has registered the highest average transaction value, Manipal has the highest delivery frequencies among all cities on Zomato, according to the company`s short-form annual report. In Alwar, someone requested 292 deliveries from 48 different restaurants while in Jaipur, a delivery worth Rs 1.84 lakh was made in 415 boxes. In Guwahati, a Zomato delivery was done by crossing the Brahmaputra river on a boat!

Gurgaon-based Zomato, which registered a three-fold jump in revenue at $206 million for the financial year 2018-2019 (with a loss of $294 million), is witnessing people increasingly going online to book tables not just in India but globally. "Our reservations service is now offered in eight countries across over 16,000 restaurants. Over 1 million diners in India are reserving tables on Zomato every month," said Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO, Zomato.

According to him, unit economics of the food delivery business have come a long way.

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"We now lose Rs 25 per delivery, compared to Rs 44 per delivery in March 2018. Our last mile cost per delivery is now Rs 65, compared to Rs 86 in March last year. The number of deliveries per rider per hour has gone up to 1.4 from 0.9 last year," Goyal informed.

Zomato Gold -- that provides benefits uniquely designed for users who see great value in frequently dining out -- has partnered with over 10,000 restaurants globally to offer either 1+1 on food or 2+2 on beverages.

"As on March 31, we have over 1 million active subscribers of Zomato Gold globally compared to 170k active users," Goyal said.

Zomato Gold in also available in four cities outside India -- Jakarta, Manila, Auckland and Beirut.

Currently active in seven cities, food@work by Zomato serves 125,000 meals a day, partners with 300 caterers and serves 70 companies.

"We have also partnered with Tier-1 caterers like Elior and Voila to the cash-and-carry segment providing better compliance and food safety," said the Zomato founder.

According to him, most of the losses ($294 million) are on account of the food delivery business in India.

"We have had tremendous growth aided by promotional marketing spends to acquire new users and be the first-to-market in many cities in India," he said.

The number of women leaders at Zomato has dropped from 45 per cent to 15 per cent over the last two years.

"Yes, that is bad. We are committed to taking that number up in the near future," said Goyal.