Food delivery aggregator Zomato, which started charging a platform fee on orders last August, has collected Rs 83 crore through this new levy until March, according to the company’s annual report.
The platform fee is one of the three key drivers of Zomato’s Adjusted Revenue, which saw a 27% year-on-year increase to Rs 7,792 crore in FY24.
“Adjusted Revenue as a percentage of GOV (gross order value) continued to increase primarily due to an uptick in restaurant commission take-rates, improved ad monetization, and the introduction of the platform fee from Q2FY24 onwards,” the report stated. These factors more than compensated for the reduction in customer delivery charges per order, resulting from the free delivery benefit available on Gold orders.
The report highlighted interesting trends, noting that most late-night orders in the last fiscal year came from Delhi NCR, while Bengaluru led in breakfast orders.
Initially, Zomato introduced the platform fee at Rs 2 per order last August, gradually increasing it to Rs 6 in key markets. Its main rival, Swiggy, also imposes a platform fee on its orders. The introduction and subsequent increase in platform fees is viewed as a strategy to enhance profitability for food delivery aggregators.
