Zomato is a mobile application for finding restaurants, reserving tables and delivering food. The application is presented in 24 countries, has 50 million users and annually brings its owners $ 200 million in revenue. In our article, you will learn how to create an application like Zomato, attract the attention of gourmets around the world and monetize it.
# 1. Niche and Target Audience
Today, the global food delivery market is divided among themselves by Grubhub, Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Eats24, Foodpanda, Zomato and other major players. These are universal services operating according to the “all for all” marketplace scheme. There is no point in directly competing with these giants, since they already have a large base of regular users and a lot of money to improve service and marketing.
Instead, it’s best to choose one of the vertical markets, focusing on a certain type of food (vegetarian dishes, healthy food, fast food, set meals for the office, homemade food, etc.) or cuisine (French, European, Brazilian, etc.). Such services know their niche and target audience for sure, and therefore can create a better user experience and thus gain competitive advantages at the start.
Niche Project Examples:
- Eat Clean Me - a service for delivering tasty, healthy and healthy food.
- Monster Pet Supplies - Fast online pet food delivery.
- Food for All - trade in unsold perishable foods and dishes that remain in shops and restaurants at the end of the day.
In addition, you can concentrate on a specific country or region where the
online food delivery service is absent or poorly developed. How does Glovo, conquering the unoccupied markets of small cities in Eastern Europe (50-200 thousand population).
# 2. Business Model and Monetization
Zomato Web Service and Application Transactional Revenue Mode
Initially, the
Zomato Internet service developed as a restaurant guide, where you could find out what kind of establishments are present in the city and see their menu, prices, ratings and reviews (that is, it was an analogue of the well-known Yelp). Later, Zomato added an
online delivery system so that customers can order food if there are no tables left or they want to have a romantic dinner at home, without wasting time and effort in cooking.
In 2016, the company made another major improvement by introducing an online reservation function called Zomato Book. Due to this, Zomato service has become a universal platform that caters to all gourmet needs: restaurant search, table reservation and online food delivery.
As for monetization, a few years ago, Zomato earned revenue solely through advertising, but now, after the proclamation of the transition to the transactional model of monetization, the share of advertising in revenue has decreased to 60%. The remaining 40% is:
- Zomato for Business. A special application for restaurants, which connects their establishments to the listing of the service and makes it possible in real time to update information about special offers, promotions, events and discounts. There is a flat fee for this service, which varies by country and region. For example, in the USA and Canada this is an average of $ 100 per month.
- Zomato Book. An online table reservation service that allows users to make, change and cancel reservations, regardless of whether the restaurant is open or not. Restaurants pay a fixed fee of $ 130-150 for connecting to the Zomato book.
- Zomato Events. The service takes a small percentage from the sale of tickets to various profile shows and events related to the restaurant business, cooking and eating.
- Zomato Whitelabel. A solution that allows restaurants to create Zomato-like mobile applications for their business, where you can choose a dish, book a table or order an online meal delivery.
- Zomato Base. Consulting services designed to help restaurants survive, develop, change their profile (cuisine, direction) and expand their presence in other markets.
- Zomato Gold. Subscription with preferential terms for users in individual partner restaurants. A program participant does not pay for the second most expensive dish on the check (one free dish for one visit) and receives one free drink for each already ordered (maximum two free drinks per visit). Valid only in India. Subscription price - 2000 rupees per year (about $ 30).
# 3. Basic and advanced features
Zomato application workflow and who is involved in it
Creating a mobile application like Zomato, you need to implement four user roles: customer-buyer, restaurant, courier and administrator. To do this, you need a number of functions common to all (registration, authentication, profile settings, tracking the status of the order, including location, etc.) and several functions tailored for a specific user role.