EBDI

INDIVIDUAL
ASSIGNMENT

Zomato and its success story

An entrepreneurship venture which aims to become the google of food
industry

Submitted by

Chirag Garg
Section B

140103050

It was a very pleasant evening and I was out with my friends. We decided
to go out for dinner at a very renowned restaurant. It was situated on outskirts of the city and hosted few of the finest cuisines you can manage to
get throughout the city. We made a reservation to the place at around
8pm. Incidentally, we reached half an hour late to the restaurant and
when we asked for our place; they informed us that currently there is no
vacant seat and we might have to wait for another hour or so before we
can have a place. We got really furious arguing how could it possibly
happen when we made an advanced booking. Anyhow, we waited till
there was a place for us, for 1.5 hours exactly. We made our orders and
the food arrived in next 10-15 minute. We were shocked to see the quality
of the food served; as if the leftover of the day were just passed on to us
after some garnishing in order to give it a better appearance.
We could not tolerate this anymore and we called up the manager to
lodge a complaint. We got infuriated and got up to leave the place when
suddenly the person sitting at the table next to ours stopped us and
mentioned: Do write a review of your experience at the restaurant on
Zomato to prevent other customers from facing the same. We left the
place. We emphatically wrote a review of the restaurant at Zomato and
were surprised to see the number of people who either seconded or
supported our review.
The sort of response we received on our review was like a bolt from blue.
Zomato, for all those who have not come across it yet, is an online
restaurant search and discovery service which provides information on
home delivery, cafes, and restaurants along with menus, photos, reviews
and contact details for credibility. It was started by two Indian Institute of
Technology, Delhi alumni Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in the
year 2008 as Foodiebay.com as a listing of eateries in Delhis restaurant
hub Hauz Khas.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Zomato is an online restaurant search and discovery service providing
information on home delivery, dining-out, cafs and nightlife in cities of
India and 32 other countries. Started as Foodiebay in 2008 the company
has witnessed impeccable growth over the past few years. Zomato never
had an early-mover advantage. There were players like burp.com,
dineout.com, placetodine.com. The driving factor behind their growth is

the aggressive new country launch approach; this helped them enter the
market at the right time and acquire a substantial market share.
It is one of the few companies to have acquired a global player named,
Urban-Spoon to enter into the USA market.
Backed by Infoedge as it first investor it began generating revenue
through selling online ad spaces to restaurant owners. As a medium for
increasing revenue the company diversified in 2014 adding two more
business verticals namely, Zomato for Business, a subscription sales
based model and Online Ordering to their gambit.

Business
Verticals

Ad- Sales

Zomato
for
Business

Online
Ordering

Zomato
White
Label

Ad-sales: These are the sales made for the ad spaces available on the
Zomato website. There are multiple ad slots/locations on a webpage, each
having different price for itself.
The prices also vary with the location of the restaurants. For eg- A
headline banner on the webpage for a south Delhi restaurant may cost as
much as Rs 30,000 per month, whereas a normal side window ad for an
east Delhi area may cost very less. The STMO under consideration is from
ad-sales.
Zomato for Business: Its a platform giving the restaurants the freedom to
control their content on their webpage to some extent. This helps them
target their audience on Zomato through a single application such as
providing current offers, replying to reviews etc. Its a subscription based
model, where the payment can be done for a fixed period; so much so
that the amount per month is debited directly from their account.

Online Ordering: Its a new initiative supported through the mobile app
and website. Still in its nascent stage, it only contributes to 2% of the
revenue as of now.
Zomato White Label: Also known as BAKE is a service provided by Zomato
to the restaurants helping them make their own mobile apps based on
pre-set templates.
Search and discovery: The search and discovery section began by offering
listings in major cities in India and now lists over 1 million restaurants
across 22 countries. Zomato helps users make dining decisions by
providing a variety of information (ranging from the basic like cost and
popularity to the more minute like Wifi access and whether the place is
pet friendly) to help them narrow down their choices. One can also search
restaurants by location, dish, cuisine and establishment type.
Zomato also has a variety of social features. It encourages its users to
share their recommendations in the form of reviews, photos and ratings
for restaurants with others. Further, you can tag friends in your reviews
and photos. Also, you have the option to mark restaurants as Been
There, or on the app, Check-in. Your activity appears chronologically on
your profile in the form of your Foodie Journey. You can also choose to
follow foodies (in your city, or otherwise) so that you can read about their
experiences in your Feed. Similar to personal Feed, there is a feature
called City Feed, which showcases user reviews and photos, realtime so
that you can know what's popular at that moment. You can also bookmark
your favourite restaurants so that you're always updated on the
happenings like events, promotions and specials.
Bringing together the discovery and social aspects of Zomato, the website
and app also have a feature called Collections. Collections are theme
based discovery search to help users make a choice. The themes are
tailored to each city and are based on popular search categories (eg:
Kickass Burgers in Delhi, Great Eggspectations in Melbourne, and Mexican
Magic in Seattle). For a restaurant to feature in a category, it needs to be
popular with the users in terms of reviews and ratings.
Zomato mobile app: Zomato is a food application which is currently
available in 22 countries worldwide, with more locations on the way. If
youre a food person and like to know about new openings and where to
go for decent food and where to avoid, then Zomato is something youll
find very useful.
Reviews are posted by other food enthusiasts and food bloggers, whether
for a living or something they do on the side from their day job. With over
30 million foodies worldwide it is a great way to interact with other users
and read their restaurant reviews.

The app has recently been re-launched with new features which make it
even simpler and fun to use. On the home page youll find different
options from trending this week to new openings to boozy brunches,
so whatever youre in the mood for there will be something you can find.
Zomato has created a search function you can use, so whichever part of a
city youre in you wont get stuck locating somewhere to eat. The app also
has a nearby function to make it even easier. You just select the nearby
option and a list of eateries and bars are listed that are close by, informing
you of distance, cost, cuisine etc. Another great function is being able to
draw an area on the map yourself, which lists all the food venues within
this area.
Each user has their own profile and the more reviews you post and more
photos you upload, determine your foodie status, from foodie to
connoisseur. You can choose to follow your favourite users, check in to
restaurants and tag people who have a profile on Zomato. Like other
social networks you have a feed page, so when people you follow post a
new item you can comment and like them.
Each review you write, Zomato gives you the option to automatically post
on your Twitter feed and a link to your blog, if you have one, is
incorporated at the bottom of the review. You can also connect with
friends and accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
What I love about the Zomato app is the simplicity and how easy it is to
navigate. Its current, has up to date information and I enjoy the social
side of it too.

HISTORY
The website Foodiebay.com was started by Deepinder Goyal, an IIT
Delhi graduate. The journey to the present-day Zomato started as a small
exercise to help his colleagues negotiate huge stacks of menu cards with
ease. It was in 2008 when he was working with Bain and Company, a
management consulting firm, when he put all menu cards in his office on
the internet. Deepinders juniors from college, Pankaj Chaddah, Gunjan
Patidar (who are now Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer
respectively) and Amar, joined him in building the database. Foodiebay
officially started in July 2008 with a list of 1,200 restaurants in the Delhi
NCR region. This database expanded to 2,000 restaurants by end 2008.
Within the next six months, Kolkata and Mumbai were included on the
website.
In 2010, the website was named among the
internet companies in India by the SmartTechie
the
website
broke
even
and
had
to Bangalore and Pune. That is when Infoedge,
the Naukri.com group, invested
4.7 crore

top 25 most promising

Magazine. By June 2010,
expanded
its
reach
the parent company of
(US$1 million) in the

business.
In November 2010, Foodiebay.com was renamed Zomato.com. The brand
name was changed due to a possible move outside of the food vertical
and also to avoid a possible conflict with eBay, because the earlier brand
name Foodiebay contained ebay in it. By 2011, Zomato launched
coverage in Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Also in 2011, Zomato
launched applications for iOS, Android, Windows phones and Blackberry
devices.

Zomato also launched a print version of the content on the website in

collaboration with Citibank in May 2012. The guides were marketed and
sold under the name "Citibank Zomato Restaurant Guide". During the
launch, these guides were made available for four cities in IndiaDelhi
NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. As per press reports, Zomato got
around 2.5 million visitors on its website in March 2012.
In September 2012, Zomato expanded to its first overseas location by
launching its services in Dubai, UAE. This was followed by quick expansion
into Sri Lanka, Qatar, the United Kingdom, and more recently,
the Philippines and South Africa.
The company launched in Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand in July
2013,
and Hamilton in
December
2013.[17] It
made
its
way
to Turkey, Brazil, and Indonesia in November 2013, with its website and
apps available in Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese, Indonesian, and English.[18]
2014 was a year full of expanding international reach and acquisitions. In
April, Zomato launched its services in Portugal. In July, Zomato made its
first acquisition by buying New Zealand's Menu-mania for an undisclosed
sum. In August the focus was on Europe. The company acquired online
restaurant guides Lunchtime.cz (from the Czech Republic) and
Obedovat.sk (from Slovakia) for a combined $3.25 million. In September,
Zomato acquired Poland-based restaurant search service Gastronauci for
an undisclosed sum. In October, Zomato finally entered North America by
launching its services in Canada. Shortly after, in November, it extended
its reach to Lebanon and Ireland as well. In December, Zomato acquired
leading Italian restaurant search service Cibando.
Zomato started 2015 by acquiring Seattle-based food portal Urbanspoon
for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition marked Zomato's entry into the
United States, Canada and Australia, and brought it into direct competition
with Yelp, Zagat and OpenTable. In the same month, Zomato also acquired
Mekanist, one of Turkey's largest restaurant search players, in an all-cash
deal that makes Zomato the most exhaustive restaurant search service in
the country. he acquisition increased Zomato's coverage from about
27,500 restaurants in Istanbul and Ankara to more than 50,000
restaurants across Turkey.
In October 2014, Zomato introduced a new logo the Zomato heart,
which in February 2015 was updated to the Urbanspoon's Spoon logo in
Zomato red. This was done to ensure that the transition for users from
Urbanspoon to Zomato was easier. As per press reports, Zomato now
attracts 90 million monthly visits.

Zomato has recently also broadened its reach and acquired companies
that focus on other aspects of restaurant businesses. In April 2015, they
acquired a 4 year old Delhi based startup MapleGraph that built
MaplePOS, a cloud-based point of sale product for restaurants. Zomato
renamed the MaplePOS product to Zomato Base. MaplePOS was
Zomatos first acquisition of a restaurant-focused product outside their
core business. In the same month, Zomato also acquired NexTable, a USbased table reservation and restaurant management platform. Together,
NexTable and Zomato will launch Zomato Book, a table reservation system
for merchants

The Story behind How Foodiebay became Zomato

One afternoon, in the last week of November 2010, Deepinder Goyal and
Pankaj Chaddah went for lunch at a cafe in the Ambience Mall in Gurgaon,
a satellite town outside Delhi. The visit changed the way the two
gentlemen thought of their business.
It had been three years since Goyal and Chaddah had set up
Foodiebay.com - a website that posted hundreds of restaurant menus,
reviews of eating joints and recommendations.
As the two walked the mall, they realised that most of the people visiting
the mall did not even know about the eating joints that dotted the mall's
fourth floor. Wouldn't it be great if restaurant names and their menus were
available to people on the move? The co-founders discussed as they dug
into their lunch.

After they returned to work, they summoned their chief technology officer
and asked him to build a restaurant application that people could access
on their smartphones.
Over the next month and a half, two things happened - Foodiebay
metamorphosed into Zomato, and a Zomato application became available
for Google's Android operating system. Zomato doesnt mean anything,
it's just a word that rhymes with tomato! (Easier to relate with food, and
remember)
The app was launched around the time the smartphone wave was picking
up in India. Since then, about eight and a half lakh Zomato applications, or
apps, have been downloaded on Android phones, BlackBerry, Windows
Phone and the iPhones. The app currently has 35,000 menus.
Right now, the smartphone app does not make any money for the
company but is a novel way to increase stickiness amongst users.

Marketing and Sales Strategy of Zomato

Zomato believes in having strong content on their website; they believe in
first hand data collection for their portals. Hence, they do not need to
spend a lot of money on Ad words as search engine optimisation gives
them an upper hand over their competitors.
Listing of the restaurants is free of cost on the website. Thus adding a free
clientele base which could be further explored for revenue generation
based on various offerings and products which may include paid listing for
better visibility.
As a part of their strategy they believe in BTL marketing compared to ATL
marketing. Collateral such as door stickers, tent cards, badges etc. are
widely distributed to restaurants as a part of the strategy.
The posters put in the restaurants have barcode scanning options linked
to the mobile app, which can provide instant offers if applicable.
Certain restaurants have specific offers for customers where they can
like/follow/review the restaurant on the app for discounts or free meals.
Regular foodie meets are organized in restaurants which help the foodie
community connect with each over meals, where discussions and reviews
take place, thereby helping Zomato market itself as a brand that values its
users. This also helps in marketing the restaurant where the meets are
held.

In developing markets, events such as restaurant summits are held, which

provide a common platform for the hospitality industry to come together
for discussing and deliberating upcoming trends.

The sales team at Zomato are believed to be the backbone of the

organization that bring in revenue for the company and act as brand
ambassadors as well as relationship builders. They are trained to become
the face of the organization as they are regularly in touch with the key
stakeholders who are the restaurant owners helping them market and sell
products that the company provides. They not only bring business to the
company but also promote it in the market.
Reasons for Success

Zomato is striving to make it easier for people to share and discover

good places to eat which is something very basic to human nature.
We all want good food. At Zomato, they provide an opportunity to
work on something they believe in something that solves a
problem, something that provides value, and something that
matters.
Zomato website, its simplicity, its robustness, its beautiful web
design and super easy to use UI. (Cheers for the development team)

Working at Zomato will give you an opportunity to:

- work with an experienced and a talented team on challenging
products used by millions of people
- work with latest cutting edge web and mobile technologies (Apps,
Web 2.0) and be part of the exciting internet and mobile revolution
- work with amazing techies and learn how to get stuff done
Another reason is its amazing reach to connect to customers by
building Applications for Blackberry, iOS, Android, Windows phone.
Zomatos amazing work culture and the facilities they provide.
o The employees do cool things that matter
o When you want people to think creatively and push the
boundaries of whats possible, their workspace shouldnt be a
drab maze of beige cubicles. Their offices have become well
known for their innovative, fun andsome might say wacky
design. Like most of their decisions, data shows that these
spaces have a positive impact on productivity, collaboration
and inspiration.
o They always wanted Zomato to be a place that brought
together smart, talented people from a diversity of
backgrounds, and where you could bring your whole self to
work.
Their mission is to organize the worlds information about
restaurants and leisure and make it universally accessible for all