Zomato's success story

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Zomato and its success story An entrepreneurship venture which aims to become the google of food industry

Submitted by

Chirag Garg Section B

14010300

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 nest 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. nyhow, we waited till there was a place for us, for !." hours e#actly. We made our orders and the food arrived in ne#t !$-!" minute. We were shocked to see the %uality  of the food served; as if the leftover of the day were &ust 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 ne#t to ours stopped us and mentioned' ()o write a review of your e#perience at the restaurant on  *omato to prevent other customers from facing the same.+ We left the  place. We emphatically wrote a review of the restaurant at *omato and were surprised to see the number of people who either seconded or  supported our review. he sort of response we received on our review was like a bolt from blue.  *omato, 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  echnology, )elhi alumni )eepinder oyal and anka& /haddah in the  year 0$$8 as 1oodiebay.com as a listing of eateries in )elhi2s restaurant  hub 3au4 5has.

ABOUT THE COMPANY  Zomato is an online restaurant search and discovery service providing information on home delivery! dining"out! caf#s and nightlife in cities of  $ndia and 3% other countries& Started as 'oodiebay in %00( the company has witnessed impeccable growth over the past few years& )omato never had an early"mover advantage& *here were players li+e burp&com! dineout&com! placetodine&com& *he driving factor behind their growth is

the aggressive new country launch approach this helped them enter the mar+et at the right time and acuire a substantial mar+et share& $t is one of the few companies to have acuired a global player named! 2rban"Spoon to enter into the 2SA mar+et& Bac+ed by $nfoedge as it rst investor it began generating revenue through selling online ad spaces to restaurant owners& As a medium for increasing revenue the company diversied in %014 adding two more business verticals namely! )omato for Business! a subscription sales based model5 and -nline -rdering5 to their gambit&

Business ,erticals

Ad" Sales

)omato for Business

-nline -rdering

)omato .hite /abel

Ad"sales6 *hese are the sales made for the ad spaces available on the )omato website& *here are multiple ad slots7locations on a webpage! each having di8erent price for itself&  *he prices also vary with the location of the restaurants& 'or eg" A headline banner on the webpage for a south 9elhi restaurant may cost as much as :s 30!000 per month! whereas a normal side window ad for an east 9elhi area may cost very less& *he S*;- under consideration is from ad"sales& )omato for Business6 $t
-nline -rdering6 $t of the revenue as of now& )omato .hite /abel6 Also +nown as BA?@ is a service provided by )omato to the restaurants helping them ma+e their own mobile apps based on pre"set templates& Search and discovery6 *he search and discovery section began by o8ering listings in maor cities in $ndia and now lists over 1 million restaurants across %% countries& )omato helps users ma+e dining decisions by providing a variety of information ranging from the basic li+e cost and popularity to the more minute li+e .i access and whether the place is pet friendly to help them narrow down their choices& -ne can also search restaurants by location! dish! cuisine and establishment type& )omato also has a variety of social features& $t encourages its users to share their recommendations in the form of reviews! photos and ratings for restaurants with others& 'urther! you can tag friends in your reviews and photos& Also! you have the option to mar+ restaurants as 6een here, or on the app! /heck-in& Dour activity appears chronologically on your prole in the form of your 'oodie Eourney& Dou can also choose to follow foodies in your city! or otherwise so that you can read about their e=periences in your 'eed& Similar to personal 'eed! there is a feature called /ity 1eed, which showcases user reviews and photos! realtime so that you can +now whatFs popular at that moment& Dou can also boo+mar+ your favourite restaurants so that youFre always updated on the happenings li+e events! promotions and specials& Bringing together the discovery and social aspects of )omato! the website and app also have a feature called Collections& Collections are theme based discovery search to help users ma+e a choice& *he themes are tailored to each city and are based on popular search categories eg6 ?ic+ass Burgers in 9elhi! Great @ggspectations in ;elbourne! and ;e=ican ;agic in Seattle& 'or a restaurant to feature in a category! it needs to be popular with the users in terms of reviews and ratings& )omato mobile app6 )omato is a food application which is currently available in %% countries worldwide! with more locations on the way& $f  you
 *he app has recently been re"launched with new features which ma+e it even simpler and fun to use& -n the home page you
HISTORY 

 *he website 'oodiebay&com was started by 9eepinder Goyal! an $$* 9elhi graduate& *he ourney to the present"day )omato started as a small e=ercise to help his colleagues negotiate huge stac+s of menu cards with ease& $t was in %00( when he was wor+ing with Bain and Company! a management consulting rm! when he put all menu cards in his oIce on the internet& 9eepinder
)omato also launched a print version of the content on the website in collaboration with Citiban+ in ;ay %01%& *he guides were mar+eted and sold under the name PCitiban+ )omato :estaurant GuideP& 9uring the launch! these guides were made available for four cities in $ndiaQ 9elhi KC:! ;umbai! Bangalore and June& As per press reports! )omato got around %& million visitors on its website in ;arch %01%& $n September %01%! )omato e=panded to its rst overseas location by launching its services in 9ubai! 2A@& *his was followed by uic+ e=pansion into Sri /an+a! Ratar! the 2nited ?ingdom! and more recently! the Jhilippines and South Africa&  *he company launched in Auc+land and .ellington in Kew )ealand in Euly %013! and Oamilton in 9ecember %013&1LT $t made its way to *ur+ey! BraHil! and $ndonesia in Kovember %013! with its website and apps available in *ur+ish! BraHilian Jortuguese! $ndonesian! and @nglish& 1(T %014 was a year full of e=panding international reach and acuisitions& $n April! )omato launched its services in Jortugal& $n Euly! )omato made its rst acuisition by buying Kew )ealandFs ;enu"mania for an undisclosed sum& $n August the focus was on @urope& *he company acuired online restaurant guides /unchtime&cH from the CHech :epublic and -bedovat&s+ from Slova+ia for a combined M3&% million& $n September! )omato acuired Joland"based restaurant search service Gastronauci for an undisclosed sum& $n -ctober! )omato nally entered Korth America by launching its services in Canada& Shortly after! in Kovember! it e=tended its reach to /ebanon and $reland as well& $n 9ecember! )omato acuired leading $talian restaurant search service Cibando& )omato started %01 by acuiring Seattle"based food portal 2rbanspoon for an undisclosed sum& *he acuisition mar+ed )omatoFs entry into the 2nited States! Canada and Australia! and brought it into direct competition with Delp! )agat and -pen*able& $n the same month! )omato also acuired ;e+anist! one of *ur+eyFs largest restaurant search players! in an all"cash deal that ma+es )omato the most e=haustive restaurant search service in the country& he acuisition increased )omatoFs coverage from about %L!00 restaurants in $stanbul and An+ara to more than 0!000 restaurants across *ur+ey& $n -ctober %014! )omato introduced a new logo Q the )omato heart! which in 'ebruary %01 was updated to the 2rbanspoonFs Spoon logo in )omato red& *his was done to ensure that the transition for users from 2rbanspoon to )omato was easier& As per press reports! )omato now attracts U0 million monthly visits&

)omato has recently also broadened its reach and acuired companies that focus on other aspects of restaurant businesses& $n April %01! they acuired a 4 year old 9elhi based startup ;apleGraph that built ;apleJ-S! a cloud"based point of sale product for restaurants& )omato renamed the ;apleJ-S product to )omato Base<& ;apleJ-S was )omato
The Story ehind Ho! "oodieay ecame Zomato

-ne afternoon! in the last wee+ of Kovember %010! 9eepinder Goyal and Jan+a Chaddah went for lunch at a cafe in the Ambience ;all in Gurgaon! a satellite town outside 9elhi& *he visit changed the way the two gentlemen thought of their business& $t had been three years since Goyal and Chaddah had set up 'oodiebay&com " a website that posted hundreds of restaurant menus! reviews of eating oints and recommendations& As the two wal+ed the mall! they realised that most of the people visiting the mall did not even +now about the eating oints that dotted the mallFs fourth Noor& .ouldnFt it be great if restaurant names and their menus were available to people on the moveV *he co"founders discussed as they dug into their lunch&

After they returned to wor+! they summoned their chief technology oIcer and as+ed him to build a restaurant application that people could access on their smartphones& -ver the ne=t month and a half! two things happened " 'oodiebay metamorphosed into )omato! and a )omato application became available for GoogleFs Android operating system& )omato doesn
Mar#etin$ and Sa%es Strate$y o& Zomato

)omato believes in having strong content on their website they believe in rst hand data collection for their portals& Oence! 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& /isting of the restaurants is free of cost on the website& *hus adding a free clientele base which could be further e=plored for revenue generation based on various o8erings and products which may include paid listing for better visibility& As a part of their strategy they believe in B*/ mar+eting compared to A*/ mar+eting& Collateral such as door stic+ers! tent cards! badges etc& are widely distributed to restaurants as a part of the strategy&  *he posters put in the restaurants have barcode scanning options lin+ed to the mobile app! which can provide instant o8ers if applicable& Certain restaurants have specic o8ers for customers where they can li+e7follow7review the restaurant on the app for discounts or free meals& :egular foodie meets are organiHed in restaurants which help the foodie community connect with each over meals! where discussions and reviews ta+e place! thereby helping )omato mar+et itself as a brand that values its users& *his also helps in mar+eting the restaurant where the meets are held&

$n developing mar+ets! 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&

 *he sales team at )omato are believed to be the bac+bone of the organiHation that bring in revenue for the company and act as brand ambassadors as well as relationship builders& *hey are trained to become the face of the organiHation as they are regularly in touch with the +ey sta+eholders who are the restaurant owners helping them mar+et and sell products that the company provides& *hey not only bring business to the company but also promote it in the mar+et& Reasons &or Success •

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)omato is striving to ma+e it easier for people to share and discover good places to eat X which is something very basic to human nature& .e all want good food& At )omato! they provide an opportunity to wor+ on something they believe in X something that solves a problem! something that provides value! and something that matters& )omato website! its simplicity! its robustness! it
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.or+ing at )omato will give you an opportunity to6 " wor+ with an e=perienced and a talented team on challenging products used by millions of people " wor+ with latest cutting edge web and mobile technologies Apps! .eb %&0 and be part of the e=citing internet and mobile revolution " wor+ with amaHing techies and learn how to get stu8 done Another reason is its amaHing reach to connect to customers by building Applications for Blac+berry! i-S! Android! .indows phone& )omato