Paytm, Zomato Team Up to Bring Mobile Payments and Food Delivery Together in India

Food delivery is catching on all over, and India is no exception, Recently, word emerged about a partnership between Paytm and Zomato, which is poised to open up the possibilities of food delivery powered by mobile payments systems. It’s currently live in Delhi-NCR, and reports suggest that it’s only a matter of time before a lot of other places get to access this means to get food fast.

With the partnership in place, Paytm users will be able to order food directly from the app itself, with Zomato supplying delivery services accordingly. It’s poised to focus mainly on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in the country, a reflection of the fact that most Paytm customers are from mid-tier cities. What’s more, Paytm is also stepping up its offline capabilities, offering the Paytm BHIM UPI, a move that’s giving about two-thirds of its offline merchant base—six million out of the roughly 9.5 million in place—better access to Paytm services.

For its part, Zomato is looking forward to taking advantage of a vastly expanded marketplace. Reports from the company suggest it’s hit a monthly run rate of 28 million as of December 2018, and now encompasses over 80,000 restaurants over 100 cities in India. With a Netscribes Research study suggesting an online food delivery market growth of 34 to 36 percent through 2020, moves like this will not only help fuel that overall growth but give its practitioners access to the expanded market share therein.

The combined effort of Zomato and Paytm should open up a wide range of new opportunities, though those who want to get in will have to do so quickly. Inertia is a powerful force, and if people start getting used to using Zomato / Paytm, they’ll stay used to it, and it will take some seriously good deals to break that market free. We’ve already seen the power food delivery has all over the world, so if there aren’t already others working to break into that market, it will be a bit of shock.

People want food delivered to their homes, no matter what country it is. We’re seeing that here with India, and we’ve already seen it elsewhere. Food delivery should be a growth sector for some time to come.