The very popular restaurant search and delivery platform Zomato is now delivering food in 500 cities across India. The company has confirmed that it has reached this milestone ahead of schedule. The focus in the latest round of expansion has been Tier III and Tier IV cities. The Zomato app is free to download for Android phones and the Apple iPhones, from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store respectively.
“At the beginning of June this year, users in over 300 cities in India could order food through Zomato. Back then, we were under the assumption that we’ll reach the 500 milestone by the end of August, if not September. Turns out our food delivery services are growing faster than ever before. And we are already in 500 cities,” says Mohit Gupta, CEO, Zomato, in an official statement. Some of the latest additions to the Zomato map include Alappuzha and Malappuram in Kerala, Pushkar in Rajasthan, Ankleshwar and Mehsana in Gujarat, Kanyakumari, Kodaikanal and Cuddalore in the state of Tamil Nadu, Itarsi and Ashoknagar in Madhya Pradesh, Fazilka and Nawanshahr in the state of Punjab, Vrindavan and Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Silvassa in Daman, Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, Daltonganj in Jharkhand, Pataudi in Haryana, Osmanabad and Sawantwadi in Maharashtra and Shillong in Meghalaya.
The numbers that Zomato has shared indicates that Indians are lapping up the concept of oirdering food online. “For instance, Giridih in Jharkhand, with a population of 144,000 clocked over 1000 orders on the very first day of its launch and has continued the rhythm since,” says Gupta. And there are more examples too. “In Fazilka (Punjab), with a population of 76,492, each restaurant onboard is averaging 40 orders a day. Such trends have been insightful as well as encouraging. A user in Nagaur (Rajasthan), with a population of 1.3 lakh, ordered food worth ₹6995 – registering the highest order value from a Tier IV city,” he adds.
As it turns out, Chicken Biryani is the most ordered non-veg item in the Tier III and Tier IV cities, while Masala Dosa is the most popular order in the veg food category.
This announcement comes on a day when Zomato has won hearts on social media with their reply to a tweet by a user who cancelled a food order since it was being delivered by a “non-Hindu” rider. In the reply, Zomato says, “Food doesn’t have a religion. It is a religion.”
The latest round of expansion to 500 cities across India comes at a time when Amazon is expected to start the food delivery service too, as a part of the Prime subscription option, and may acquire Uber Eats too.
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