Share
Since the food aggregators have flooded application stores on Google and Android, people have become accustomed to ordering meals online. Whether you are tired, not in the mood to cook, have guests coming over at short notice, came home late from the office, or a new offer popped up on the notification bar, there are many excuses to order food.
Initially, when food applications like Zomato and Swiggy started, they offered a huge amount of discounts to attract users. They reduced the discounts and added distance fees (which exist even today). If you want your order to be delivered for free within a certain radius, you can buy their membership.
When people started buying memberships, Zomato, Swiggy, and more added platform fees, a nominal price of Rs 2 (One would think: aren’t people already buying membership to use your platform to order food?). It became Rs 5, and now it’s Rs 6.
Zomato, Swiggy Increase Platform Fees By 20%
According to reports published by the Economic Times, food deliveries will get costlier due to platform fee hikes in certain cities. In Bengaluru, Swiggy teased a Rs 7 platform fee, but during checkout, it was reduced to Rs 6.
Zomato already has a Priority Fee feature so that users can get their orders delivered to their doorstep faster. In cities like Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, people witnessed Zomato hike the platform fee to Rs 9, and Swiggy experimented at Rs 10 as an excuse for delivering during peak hours. A Business Standard report suggests that both companies will continue to hike platform fees until they experience resistance from customers.
If you are willing to buy a membership, pay surge prices, and any other extra amount levied on your order, these companies will continue to raise their prices Re 1 at a time.
How Swiggy, Zomato Earn Profit From Platform Hike?
Many think that giving Re 1 from the pocket is not a big ask (not certainly today, especially in metropolitan cities when you won’t even get a candy for Re 1). However, when a company receives orders in thousands and lakhs a day, they are surely benefiting a lot from this price hike.
Not to mention that both these companies also order deliveries via Instamart or Blinkit. Take Zepto (a popular grocery delivery application in India) as an example. It introduced a platform fee of Rs 2 in March 2024. Reports suggest that the platform receives around 5,50,000 orders every day. Thus, it is already making Rs 11,00,000 extra. Zomato handles somewhere 2-2.5 million orders in a day, imagine what Re 1 would add to the extra income of the company.
