Food delivery giant Zomato has raised its platform fee to Rs 12 per order from Rs 10 earlier, as the festival season demand drives a surge in transactions. The increase, though seemingly modest, is aimed at making each order more profitable and shoring up the company’s bottom line.
Rival Swiggy has also raised its platform fee by Rs 2 amid the festival rush, taking it to Rs 14 per order.
The platform fee is an additional charge levied by both Zomato and Swiggy on every order, over and above other line items such as delivery charges, GST, and restaurant fees. First introduced in April 2023 at just Rs 2 per order, Zomato has steadily increased the levy over the past two years to its current level of Rs 12.
At Zomato’s present order volumes — roughly 2.3–2.5 million orders a day — the fee at Rs 12 translates into up to Rs 3 crore in daily revenue for the company, compared to around Rs 2.5 crore when the fee was at Rs 10. That's an additional income of up to Rs 45 crore per quarter.
While a Rs 2 increase may seem negligible to users, the cumulative impact meaningfully improves the company’s financial health given the scale of daily transactions.
The hike is being seen as a festive-season move, with the possibility that Zomato may roll back the fee to Rs 10 once the surge in demand subsides.
Eternal did not respond to queries sent by Moneycontrol.
Both Zomato and rival Swiggy have, however, in the past experimented with higher platform fees during peak-demand periods and, if order volumes remained unaffected, stuck with the revised charges longer term.
Alongside platform fees, Zomato has been layering other monetisation levers. The company has piloted rain surcharges during bad weather and, more recently, begun testing a Rs 50 'VIP Mode' in select locations that promises faster deliveries, priority riders, and a concierge-style service for select top customers. Unlike subscription-led offerings such as Swiggy One, this feature allows Zomato to extract incremental revenue on a per-order basis.
It has also introduced a 'long distance fee' payable by restaurants on orders delivered beyond four kilometres, drawing some pushback from smaller outlets, Moneycontrol reported earlier.
Zomato’s efforts to bolster its bottom line come at a time when the company has reported a steep decline in profits, largely due to increased investments in its quick commerce arm Blinkit.
Eternal Ltd (formerly Zomato) on July 21 reported a massive 90 percent year-on-year (YoY) decline in quarterly profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 25 crore in the first quarter (Q1) of financial year 2025-26 (FY26), down from Rs 253 crore in the same period a year ago.
Its revenue from operations rose 70.4 percent YoY to Rs 7,167 crore in Q1, up from Rs 4,206 crore a year ago. It had reported a revenue of Rs 5,833 crore in the previous quarter.
As the festive season picks up, the moves underscore how Zomato and Swiggy are doubling down on monetisation and operational efficiencies, even as they test premium features to extract more revenue from high-frequency customers.
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