Difficult to comment on quick commerce market share when competitor’s information is picky: Swiggy chief Sriharsha Majety 

Sriharsha Majety, Group CEO and co-founder, Swiggy

It is difficult to comment on which company has how much market share in quick commerce and how competitive the industry is if certain players only give out selective information, Sriharsha Majety, group CEO and co-founder of Swiggy said in an interview to Moneycontrol.

“It is going to be very hard to have a full conversation based on unaudited financials. So, it would be very hard for me to really comment on reports that are flying out there…it is difficult to compare when information is picky,” Majety told Moneycontrol after announcing the company’s results for the first time since it went public in November.

While Majety did not name specific companies, his remarks were widely seen as a reference to Zepto, the only major privately funded quick commerce player in India. Market leader and Swiggy’s old rival, Blinkit, owned by Zomato, is also a listed company.

Publicly listed companies have to get their financials audited regularly and file their results every quarter. Privately held companies on the other hand only have to file financials with the central authorities once a year, after an auditor signs off on it.

Majety’s comments come at a time when Zepto CEO and co-founder Aadit Palicha has said, in various media reports, that Zepto has a gross order value (GOV) of $2 billion. With that GMV, Zepto becomes the second-largest player in the space, behind Blinkit and ahead of Swiggy Instamart.

Blinkit, the market leader, has a GOV run rate of around $3 billion, regulatory filings show and Zepto has a GOV of $2 billion, as per Palicha. Swiggy Instamart has a gross order value (GOV) run rate of $1.6 billion, recent filings showed.

Not just Palicha, even brokerages have said Zepto has gone ahead of Swiggy Instamart. Motilal Oswal, which led Zepto’s latest fundraise, said Zepto is now the second biggest quick commerce player, beating Swiggy Instamart but trailing market leader Zomato-owned Blinkit, in the highly competitive industry.

Swiggy food delivery CEO Rohit Kapoor, however, dismissed such findings.

“We have always provided comprehensive information and even more now since we have gone public. We don't believe in information which is very sporadic in nature and could be very selective. How does one know city-wise share? What’s the source of all this?" Kapoor asked while speaking to Moneycontrol.

"There's no public information and we don't even disclose this information, so where are they (competitors and brokerages) getting it from? Or what’s the authenticity?” he added.

In the past, Blinkit chief Albinder Dhindsa also said he believes that Blinkit is the dominant player in Mumbai and Bengaluru, regions where Swiggy has a strong foothold.

“...in Bengaluru and Mumbai, for instance, we believe (that) we are the largest player in terms of gross order value (GOV) already,” Albinder Dhindsa, CEO of Blinkit, said in May.

Later, in October, Zomato CFO Akshant Goyal said, “Sequentially, the share of Delhi-NCR in our (Blinkit) business continues to fall. A couple of quarters ago, the share was around 47 percent but today that number is less than 40 percent. As we build out the markets beyond Delhi-NCR, our focus area during the first few quarters of the business, we are seeing our growth in other cities (increase).”

While top executives say their companies dominate particular regions, it is to be noted that quick commerce as an industry, despite growing to $5.5-$6 billion in four years, is still in its nascent stage and accounts for under 1 percent of the overall FMCG and retail market in India, indicating that there is more to do and plenty of room to grow before a clear winner can emerge.