Zomato, a major player in the food tech industry, has announced the implementation of a platform fee of Rs 2 per order. The Gurugram-based company said it is a “small fee that helps us pay the bills so that we can keep Zomato running”, and these additional charges have only been rolled out to select users. Zomato has not introduced the policy on Blinkit, its quick commerce platform. “This is in an experiment phase right now, and we may or may not scale,” a Zomato spokesperson told.

It’s noteworthy that Swiggy, a key rival to Zomato, introduced a similar platform fee of 2 for all food orders a few months ago. Zomato’s order delivery volume for the June quarter stood at approximately 17.6 crore orders, averaging around 20 lakh orders daily, based on data from JP Morgan.

Zomato’s Chief Financial Officer, Akshant Goyal, commented on the situation, stating that the decision to introduce a platform fee is a business-oriented choice. Zomato is aware of the actions taken by its competitors but has not yet implemented a platform fee on its own platform. The company will evaluate whether such a step aligns with its business strategy.

In a recent positive development, Zomato reported its first-ever profitable quarter, bringing optimism to both investors and the stock market. In the first quarter of FY24, the company achieved a profit of Rs 2 crore, a significant improvement from the Rs 186 crore loss recorded in the same quarter the previous year. Zomato surpassed its earlier projection of achieving profitability by Q2 FY24. The company’s operating revenue also witnessed substantial growth, rising by 71% to reach Rs 2,416 crore from the previous year’s Q1 figure of Rs 1,414 crore. This growth was supported by the strong performance of Hyperpure, a division of Zomato.