Stand and deliver: Zomato and Swiggy want to eat each other’s lunch

The online food delivery space has consolidated. From over 400 players, it is now essentially a two-horse race between Zomato and Swiggy. When all is said and done, which company will be the last one standing?

While Swiggy has expanded its food delivery to 145+ cities from 8 cities in October 2017, Zomato is now delivering in nearly 250 cities, up from 17 cities in June 2018

By facilitating customer demand at a level never seen before, the two companies have made the restaurant space more viable

Investors have seen merit in both Swiggy and Zomato’s approaches, loosening their purse strings to aid the spread of both companies

The biggest issue, however, is cash burn. How much money can these companies burn and for how long before investors pull the plug?

It’s lunchtime at Aranyas, a popular eatery in Dhanbad, the coal-rich city in Jharkhand. But while just a few tables are occupied, orders are still being punched in and flying out, courtesy the swarm of delivery personnel. Clad in either crimson or orange, they wait impatiently at the service counter.

Across the city—at traffic signals and outside the many residential townships—the procession of crimson and orange never ends.

AUTHOR

Pradip Kumar Saha

Pradip has been a journalist for close to 12 years. In his previous stint at financial newspaper Mint, which lasted over a decade, he switched to reporting from desk and wrote on a variety of subjects, including sports, food, whiskies and all things luxury. Born and raised in Patna, Pradip has a diploma in journalism from Indian Institute of Mass Communication. He is interested in good stories across beats. When not pursuing a story, he divides his time between food, tea, whisky, watches, Ghalib and Gulzar, in no particular order. At The Ken he writes weekend features and also covers companies like Uber, OYO, Zomato and Delhivery.

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