Both Zomato and Swiggy have been aggressively focusing on the 10-minute grocery delivery space for a while now. Quick commerce.

But what sent both of them into a spiral was when Zepto, the joker in the quick commerce pack, started delivering snacks in 10 minutes through Zepto Cafe, a separate app. Suddenly, quick commerce wasn’t enough. Quick food was up for play too.

Swiggy launched Snacc soon after, and Blinkit followed suit with Bistro. Both were also separate apps.

However, this move to disrupt themselves to avoid getting disrupted has drawn a lot of flak from the restaurant partners listed on their platforms because a marketplace can only be neutral when it does not participate in it.

And it is not like Zomato and Swiggy haven’t tried a hand at this before. Both platforms previously ran their cloud kitchen verticals, Zomato Infrastructure Services and Swiggy Access, respectively, which they had to close down or sell.

They then turned their attention to delivering food and building up efficiencies to deliver it faster. But when Zepto Cafe came into the picture in December with their pitch as a separate app, both Zomato and Swiggy jumped back and opened that chapter again. Only this time, they added that they would deliver it in 10 minutes and said they were not trying to build a private label to compete with the restaurants listed on their platforms. They made it clear that both Bistro and SNACC are separate apps which don’t use any of the data collected by Zomato and Swiggy to date.

But what do the restaurants listed on the platform have to say about this?

Hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan got into what all of this means for restaurants in one of the most uninhibited, probing and also the longest episodes of Two by Two we’ve recorded to date.

To capture the restaurateurs’ perspective, we have three guests who have experience working with both of the companies.

Joining the hosts for the discussion are Gaurav Saria, founder of Infinitea, India’s first exclusive chain of tearooms and stores; Thomas Fenn, co-founder of Mahabelly and joint secretary at NRAI; and Ramchander Raman, former President of Cafe Coffee Day and co-founder and COO of Nucleus Kitchens.

Welcome to episode 26 of Two by Two. Tune in to listen to an exciting discussion.

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Additional reading:

The Zomato-Swiggy cartel: Bistro and Snacc further threaten the restaurant business

Zomato, Swiggy gave up on selling their own food. Then came along Zepto Cafe

“There’s an app for that”–Swiggy, Zepto, and Blinkit

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This episode of Two by Two was researched and produced by Hari Krishna. Rajiv CN, our resident sound engineer, mixed and mastered this episode.

If you liked this episode of Two by Two, please share it with your friends and family who would be interested in listening to the episode. And if you have more thoughts on the discussion, we’d love to hear your arguments as well. You can write to us at twobytwo@the-ken.com

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