Zomato and Swiggy Post Record New Year’s Eve Food Orders | Photo credit: BCCL
Bangalore: Food delivery apps Zomato and Swiggy posted record order numbers on New Years Eve, as more people in India ordered food online in light of curfews and prohibitive orders in various parts of the country to contain the spread of Covid19. Orders per minute on both platforms exceeded 4,000, an unprecedented figure.
While Swiggy declined to comment on specific numbers, the sources ET NOW spoke with said that orders at Swiggy saw a large increase after 4:30 p.m. on New Years Eve and continued to rise, crossing 4,000 orders per minute. Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal shared interesting statistics on the number of orders, the increase in order value, and the number of popular items like Biryani, in a series of tweets.
At approximately 7:53 pm, Goyal tweeted: “An incredible amount of strain on the system right now. 1.4 lakh of live ordering right now. ~ 20k biryanis in transit. And 16k pizzas; 40% of them are pizzas from extra cheese “. He said the order speed was the highest the app had ever seen in its history. It started at 2,500 orders per minute at 6:14 pm and peaked to touch 4,100 orders per minute at 8:22 pm. Average order value exceeded Rs 500.
The Covid-induced lockdown earlier this year had dealt a body blow to food tech unicorns Zomato and Swiggy, but they saw a spike in recent months as people became more comfortable ordering food online. This peaked during the IPL cricket tournament and has been steadily increasing ever since.
Earlier this month, Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said he closed a $ 660 million primary funding round, valued at $ 3.9 billion, adding that December 2020 is expected to be the month of Highest GMV in its history. The online food delivery and restaurant discovery app plans to go public in the first half of 2021.
