Zomato Founder v/s Public’s Take on 10-minute Food Delivery

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Introduction

On March 21, 2022, the founder of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal, dropped a tweet promising food delivery in 10 minutes ensuring 10/10 quality of food with no added pressure on delivery partners regarding the same.

And this is where the story of heated arguments regarding the same began on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Background of fast delivery service in India

The 10-minute delivery space in India is heating up with many startups operating in it like Zepto which has a very strong unit economic model, Instamart by Swiggy, and the recent stock deal of Zomato with Blinkit (formerly Grofers) has further taken the competition to the next level. All of them were delivering groceries to the doorstep of the consumer.

Less than a year ago, Zomato and Tiger Global Management had funded around USD 120 million in Blinkit which got it the status of Unicorn but within a year itself, it started to face a cash crunch and things were certainly not going in the favour of the e-commerce start-up.

That’s when Zomato entered and extended a USD 150 million emergency loan to it, which is an all-stock deal valuing around USD 700-800 million. This would help to finance its capital requirements and effectively meet its liquidity needs. This was done by Zomato as a part of its strategic plan to acquire a significant stake in the hyper-local (focusing on matters concerning a small community or geographical area) delivery segment. This deal also seems to form a major part of the 10-minute Food Delivery Service as because of the investment made in Blinkit, Zomato would get access to-

● More number of Riders

● Better sourcing of food items and essentials as well.

Zomato’s take on 10-minute Food Delivery

The tweet by the Founder of Zomato started on the note ensuring that no added pressure would be faced by the riders, and no one would be penalized for late deliveries. It further stated that they have served over 1.35 billion customers which would enable them to make better predictions and based on algorithms the finishing stations of high demanding neighbourhoods which they plan to create within every 2 km would house 20 to 30 bestselling standardized menu items from various restaurants that can be dispatched in two minutes.

He further justified the 10-minute delivery by stressing the fact that 30-minute delivery is soon going to turn obsolete, and that innovation is the key to staying competitive in business. There are people who order keeping in mind the delivery time as an important factor and that people don’t want to wait for a longer time to enjoy their favourite food! Hence their offering- Zomato Instant is the solution to this problem.

Experts and Public opinion

When this move, got announced it received an instant public reaction, various Twitterati responded positively as well as negatively on the platform by posting their views, comments, and even memes about no need for the instant delivery service as it’ll compromise the food quality consequently impacting Zomato’s brand image.

Various, politicians, trade union heads, including Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, Madhya Pradesh’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra, President of National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) Kabir Suri, and NRAI Gurgaon chapter head and promoter of a restaurant, Inderjeet Singh Banga, and others negatively acclaimed the move by concerns over the quality of food delivered due to less preparation time being available to the restaurants, safety and well-being of food delivery partners to avoid penalties, and violation of traffic rules by riders to timely deliver food and complete targets.

Conclusion

While Zomato refers to the newly proposed service as innovative and strategic promising to deliver the highest value to its customers and many experts have found flaws in the initiative by criticizing the move and calling it another gimmicky marketing stunt like a 2-minute maggie that’ll put more pressure on its riders and induce them for rash driving.

Another concerning factor is the culinary art of preparing food at restaurants, whether, in the race of shorter turnaround times, the essence and charm of the food industry would not get lost. But still, the outcomes of the move are yet to be seen whether you get delivered with delicious hot food at your doorstep in 10-minutes or not!

References:

  1. https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/zomato-set-to-scale-10-minute-food-delivery-11648052417116.html
  2. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-zomato-10-minute-delivery-promise-rider-safety-7840197/
  3. https://bit.ly/39rcNcf
  4. https://bit.ly/3MzxmS4
  5. https://bit.ly/3OE49ax
  6. https://bit.ly/38z5oqI

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