HBI Staff | Hyderabad 
The rise of 10-minute food delivery is reshaping India’s food delivery landscape, with Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal asserting that shorter delivery times directly boost demand for restaurant food. Speaking on Monday, Goyal pointed to historical data that underscores how reducing delivery times can expand market reach and enhance customer engagement.
“When we took over last-mile delivery from restaurants and reduced delivery times from over 45 minutes to around 30 minutes, the result was a significant increase in demand on our platform,” Goyal stated. He added that cutting delivery times further to 10-15 minutes could yield similar, if not greater, benefits for both restaurants and customers.
This January, Zomato and Swiggy launched standalone apps, Blinkit’s Bistro and Snacc, respectively, aimed at delivering food within 10 minutes. While Zomato previously experimented with its now-defunct Zomato Instant, Goyal emphasized that the current approach is more robust. “We’ve learned that achieving 10-minute deliveries hinges on creating a dense kitchen network to minimize travel time, coupled with reducing kitchen preparation time. Consistently doing this profitably is a complex challenge, but it is solvable with the right infrastructure,” he explained.
Zomato’s Bistro aims to tackle these challenges through strategic infrastructure investments, including collaborations with food researchers, producers, chefs, and restaurants to streamline operations and test proof-of-concept models. The initiative targets gaps in the market currently served by vending machines or hyper-local vendors, striving to make quick-service options more accessible across diverse geographies.
The instant food delivery sector is becoming increasingly competitive, with players like Swiggy’s Bolt, Zepto’s Cafe, and new entrants such as Swish entering the fray. Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha revealed that rapid food delivery now accounts for 50,000 daily orders on their platform, highlighting the growing consumer appetite for faster service.
Despite this momentum, food delivery platforms face resistance from the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). The NRAI has raised concerns about the potential misuse of consumer data by aggregators to build private food brands, bypassing restaurant partners. The association is also considering approaching India’s antitrust regulator to address these practices.
As instant food delivery continues to gain traction, the sector’s evolution will depend not only on operational innovations but also on fostering trust and collaboration between platforms and restaurant partners.
Source: ET
