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The Events section on Zomato was introduced in September 2011<ref>{{Cite web|title = Updated: Zomato Adds An Events Section; Time To Get Into Online Bookings?|url = http://www.medianama.com/2011/09/223-zomato-adds-an-events-section-time-to-get-into-online-bookings/|website = MediaNama|accessdate = 2015-08-12}}</ref>. This coincided with Zomato's announcement of raising their second round of funding of $3 million from Info Edge (India) Ltd. Later, Zomato shut down its events section and included some of the features into its core restaurant product as confirmed by Zomato's CEO, Deepinder Goyal on Quora.<ref name=[[Quora]]>{{cite news |title=Why has Zomato removed the 'Events' tab from their Homepage header?|url=http://www.quora.com/Zomato/Why-has-Zomato-removed-the-Events-tab-from-their-Homepage-header/ |publisher=[[Quora]] |date=August 3, 2012}}</ref>
The Events section on Zomato was introduced in September 2011<ref>{{Cite web|title = Updated: Zomato Adds An Events Section; Time To Get Into Online Bookings?|url = http://www.medianama.com/2011/09/223-zomato-adds-an-events-section-time-to-get-into-online-bookings/|website = MediaNama|accessdate = 2015-08-12}}</ref>. This coincided with Zomato's announcement of raising their second round of funding of $3 million from Info Edge (India) Ltd. Later, Zomato shut down its events section and included some of the features into its core restaurant product as confirmed by Zomato's CEO, Deepinder Goyal on Quora.<ref name=[[Quora]]>{{cite news |title=Why has Zomato removed the 'Events' tab from their Homepage header?|url=http://www.quora.com/Zomato/Why-has-Zomato-removed-the-Events-tab-from-their-Homepage-header/ |publisher=[[Quora]] |date=August 3, 2012}}</ref>


==Coverage==
== Culture ==
Zomato offices are full of enthusiastic, young, and eager individuals. In spite of the heights it has grown to, the underlying belief of the company is that they are still a startup, and have accomplished only 1% of their target<ref>{{Cite web|title = About {{!}} Zomato|url = https://www.zomato.com/about|website = Zomato|accessdate = 2015-08-12}}</ref>.
Zomato covers over 331,200 restaurants in 22 countries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zomato.com/|title=Restaurants in India, United Kingdom, UAE, South Africa, Philippines, New Zealand, Qatar & Sri Lanka. Delhi Restaurants, Mumbai Restaurants, Gurgaon Restaurants, London Restaurants, Dubai Restaurants, Bangalore Restaurants, Pune, Abu Dhabi, Colombo, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Sharjah, Manila, Auckland, Wellington, Cape Town, Johannesburg Restaurants|work=zomato.com|accessdate=14 February 2015}}</ref>


Currently, the company employs over 2,000 employees. Zomato believes that it owes a lot of its success to its people, who work incredibly hard to make it happen. Zomato is known for the hands-on-experience it gives to all its employees, regardless of which level they enter, because of the ownership of work it trusts them with. By ensuring that everyone feels and knows that they're building something big and making a difference, the team always puts their best foot forward and pushes boundaries to deliver the best that they can.
== See also ==

Zomato practices ''desklessness -'' which is largely a way of indicating to employees that they need to be flexible in terms of roles, locations, and reporting structures. By working outside traditional role boundaries and definitions, Zomans contribute across functions and that helps keep the teams close-knit and efficient.

The company has an open feedback policy and encourages everyone to give feedback to others at any point of time. It has also built a flat hierarchy, and ensured that everyone, including the founders are approachable at all times. This feedback system guarantees that the company as well as the Zomans know how they can improve and grow, and ensures that everyone is heading in the right direction.

Zomato's success story is an incredible one, and the only way it made it so f

ar is by recruiting hardworking people who have a sense of urgency in them. More than skills, it is a culture fit that is a hiring criteria. 

==verage==
Zomato covers over 331,200 restaurants in 22 countries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zomato.com/|title=Restaurants in India, United Kingdom, UAE, South Africa, Philippines, New Zealand, Qatar & Sri Lanka. Delhi Restaurants, Mumbai Restaurants, Gurgaon Restaurants, London Restaurants, Dubai Restaurants, Bangalore Restaurants, Pune, Abu Dhabi, Colombo, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Sharjah, Manila, Auckland, Wellington, Cape Town, Johannesburg Restaurants|work=zomato.com|accessdate=14 February 2015}}</ref>{{Wide image|Z map-01.png|1120000|}}

== See Also ==
* [[Just-Eat]]
* [[Just-Eat]]
* [[Foodpanda / hellofood|foodpanda]]
* [[Foodpanda / hellofood|foodpanda]]
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* [http://www.zomato.com/ Zomato.com]
* [http://www.zomato.com/ Zomato.com]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/2yo614/hi_im_deepinder_goyal_founder_and_ceo_of_zomato/ community interview with founder Deepinder Goyal] on reddit
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/2yo614/hi_im_deepinder_goyal_founder_and_ceo_of_zomato/ community interview with founder Deepinder Goyal] on reddit
*

[[Category:Websites about food and drink]]
[[Category:Websites about food and drink]]
[[Category:Articles created via the Article Wizard]]
[[Category:Articles created via the Article Wizard]]

Revision as of 12:49, 12 August 2015

Zomato
Type of businessPrivate
Type of site
Online restaurant search and discovery service
Available inEnglish, Turkish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Spanish, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Italian
FoundedJuly 2008 (2008-07)
HeadquartersNew Delhi, Delhi, India
No. of locations22 countries
Area servedIndia, Australia, United States of America, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Slovakia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom
OwnerInfo Edge (India) Ltd. (50.1%)
Founder(s)Deepinder Goyal[1]
CEODeepinder Goyal
Key people
IndustryConsumer Services
ServicesRestaurant Search & Discovery, Online Ordering, Cashless Payments
Employees2000+
URLzomato.com (formerly foodiebay.com until November 2010)
AdvertisingYes
RegistrationOptional on the website
Users19 million visits monthly
LaunchedJuly 2008
Current statusOnline

Founded in India in 2008, Zomato has grown into a global restaurant search and discovery website and app, providing in-depth information for over 1.4 million restaurants across 22 countries.[3] Zomato's core content features include restaurant information such as scanned menus and photos, sourced by its massive feet-on-street team across all the cities it is present in.

Zomato's social features allow users to rate and review restaurants, as well as create their own personal network of foodies for trusted recommendations.

The company has also expanded to other verticals recently — Cashless Payments, Online Ordering, Table Reservations, and a Point-of-Sale system, creating cutting-edge technology to connect restaurant businesses and customers in ways that will revolutionise the restaurant industry.[4]

This end-to-end food tech company employs over 2000 people, and is changing the way people think about all things food, one country at a time.

The site has an Alexa rank of 711 in the world and 101 in India as of August 2015.

History

The idea behind Zomato (then, Foodiebay) was conceptualised in the cafeteria of Bain & Company. People would line up to look at the menus to order food during the lunch hour. Realizing this took up a large amount of everyone's time on a daily basis, Deepinder and Pankaj decided to scan restaurant menus and upload it on an intranet website for Bain employees. The website saw a lot of traffic and that's when Deepinder and Pankaj saw the potential of a successful business in front of them, and that's how Foodiebay was born in 2008.

Zomato began by listing restaurants in Delhi NCR, and quickly expanded to Kolkata and then Mumbai.

In 2010, Zomato (Foodiebay) was named among the top 25 most promising internet companies in India by SmartTechie Magazine.[5] Soon after, Info Edge (India), the parent company of the Naukri.com group, invested ₹4.7 crore (US$1 million) in the business.[6]

In November, Foodiebay.com was renamed Zomato.com. The brand name was changed due to a possible move outside of the food vertical and also to avoid a possible conflict with eBay, because the earlier brand name Foodiebay contained "ebay" in it.[7]

By 2011, Zomato launched coverage in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. In the same year, they launched applications for iOS, Android,Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices.[8] Following the introduction of .xxx domains in 2011, Zomato also launched zomato.xxx, a site dedicated to food porn.[9] Further, the company also launched a print version of the content on the website in collaboration with Citibank in May 2012, which has now been discontinued[10]. The guides were marketed and sold under the name "Citibank Zomato Restaurant Guide". During the launch, these guides were made available in four cities in India—Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune.[11]

By September 2012, Zomato expanded to its first overseas location, UAE[12], following which, Zomato saw quick expansion into Sri Lanka[13], Qatar[14], the United Kingdom[15], the Philippines, and South Africa[16].

The company launched in Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand in July 2013, and Hamilton in December 2013.[17] It made its way to Turkey, Brazil, and Indonesia in November 2013, with its website and apps available in Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese, Indonesian, and English.[18]

2014 was a year full of expanding international reach and acquisitions. In April, Zomato launched its services in Portugal. In July, Zomato made its first acquisition by buying New Zealand's Menu-mania for an undisclosed sum[19]. In August the focus was on Europe. The company acquired online restaurant guides Lunchtime.cz (from the Czech Republic) and Obedovat.sk (from Slovakia) for a combined $3.25 million.[20] In September, Zomato acquired Poland-based restaurant search service Gastronauci for an undisclosed sum.[21] In October, Zomato finally entered North America by launching its services in Canada.[22] Shortly after, in November, it extended its reach to Lebanon and Ireland as well.[23][24] In December, Zomato acquired leading Italian restaurant search service Cibando.

Zomato started 2015 by acquiring Seattle-based food portal Urbanspoon for an undisclosed sum (estimated to be around $60 million).[25] The acquisition marked Zomato's entry into the United States, Canada and Australia, and brought it into direct competition with Yelp, Zagat and OpenTable. In the same month, Zomato also acquired Mekanist, one of Turkey's largest restaurant search players, in an all-cash deal that makes Zomato the most exhaustive restaurant search service in the country[26]. The acquisition increased Zomato's coverage from about 27,500 restaurants in Istanbul and Ankara to more than 50,000 restaurants across Turkey.

In October 2014, Zomato introduced a new logo — the Zomato heart[27], which in February 2015 was updated to the Urbanspoon's Spoon logo in Zomato red[28]. This was done to ensure that the transition for users from Urbanspoon to Zomato was easier. As per press reports, Zomato now attracts 90 million monthly visits[29].

Zomato has recently also broadened its reach and acquired companies that focus on other aspects of restaurant businesses. In April 2015, they acquired a 4 year old Delhi based startup MapleGraph that built MaplePOS, a cloud-based point of sale product for restaurants. Zomato renamed the MaplePOS product to ‘Zomato Base’[30]. MaplePOS was Zomato’s first acquisition of a restaurant-focused product outside their core business. In the same month, Zomato also acquired NexTable, a US-based table reservation and restaurant management platform[31]. Together, NexTable and Zomato will launch Zomato Book, a table reservation system for merchants.

Funding

Zomato (then known as Foodiebay) raised its first round of funding of US$1 million (₹4.7 crores) fromInfo Edge (India) in August 2010[32]. Zomato raised its second round of funding of US$3.5million (₹13.5 crores) from the same investor in September 2011[33]. The following year, Zomato raised its third round, of another $2.5 million[34] followed by its fourth round worth US$10 million from Info Edge in early 2013, giving them a 57.9% stake in Zomato[35].

In November 2013, Zomato raised US$37 million (₹227.6 crores) fromSequoia Capital and Info Edge (India).Info Edge now owns 50.1% of Zomato on an investment of ₹143 crores.[36] The total amount of funding raised by Zomato stood at $53.5 million as of November 2013.

In November 2014, Zomato closed a fresh round of funding of US$60 million at a post-money valuation of ~US$660 million. This round of funding was being led jointly byInfo Edge (India) Limited and Vy Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital.[37] This took Zomato’s total funding to over US$113 million.

Products and Services

Zomato started by focusing on its restaurant search and discovery model, and has only increased its efforts over the years to provide rich and accurate data to its users. Zomato uses a feet-on-the-street system and sweeps restaurants every three months to ensure that the information provided is as recent as possible.

Zomato has expanded beyond its restaurant guide to various verticals in an attempt to own the entire food experience. Its latest offerings include Cashless Payments[38], Online Ordering[39], Table Reservations[40] and Zomato Base[41]. It earlier had an events section, which has now been discontinued.

Search and discovery

The search and discovery section began by offering listings in major cities in India and now lists over 1 million restaurants across 22 countries.[42] Zomato helps users make dining decisions by providing a variety of information (ranging from the basic like cost and popularity to the more minute like Wifi access and whether the place is pet friendly) to help them narrow down their choices. One can also search restaurants by location, dish, cuisine and establishment type.

Zomato also has a variety of social features. It encourages its users to share their recommendations in the form of reviews, photos and ratings for restaurants with others. Further, you can tag friends in your reviews and photos. Also, you have the option to mark restaurants as Been There, or on the app, Check-in. Your activity appears chronologically on your profile in the form of your Foodie Journey. You can also choose to follow foodies (in your city, or otherwise) so that you can read about their experiences in your Feed. Similar to personal Feed, there is a feature called City Feed, which showcases user reviews and photos, realtime so that you can know what's popular at that moment. You can also bookmark your favourite restaurants so that you're always updated on the happenings like events, promotions and specials.

Bringing together the discovery and social aspects of Zomato, the website and app also have a feature called Collections. Collections are theme based discovery search to help users make a choice. The themes are tailored to each city and are based on popular search categories (eg: Kickass Burgers in Delhi, Great Eggspectations in Melbourne, and Mexican Magic in Seattle). For a restaurant to feature in a category, it needs to be popular with the users in terms of reviews and ratings. 

Cashless payments

Zomato introduced cashless payments to make restaurant experiences smoother. With this feature, consumers can go to a partner restaurant and check-in with the Zomato app. Then, one has to inform the staff at the restaurant of the mode of payment. Each user has a unique identity, and the restaurant connects that to the bill. The payment method integrates with the billing system of the restaurant, so the diner can order food as he or she normally would - and the billing happens automatically in the background. At the moment, Zomato Cashless is available only in Dubai[43], but other countries are lined up, starting with New Zealand. The Zomato Cashless feature is currently available on iOS and Android devices.

Online Ordering

Zomato recently unbundled online ordering[44]. Users can order food on the website, or use the app on their iOS and Android devices. Users can choose between cash on delivery, Zomato Cashless or e-payment options such as debit or credit cards to to pay for their meal. Zomato Order started in Delhi, and quickly spread to other cities, including Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Indore etc. Dubai is the first International market in the pipeline, but others are expected to follow soon. The company also released a new app called Zomato Order for Android and iOS devices. Zomato stated that it decided to release a separate app because it believes searching for information about a restaurant, and ordering online are two separate use cases.

Table Reservations

Zomato's table reservation system, called Zomato Book, is expected to be launched in India in the second half of 2015[45]. The service will be powered with technology from NexTable, a US-based firm that provides a platform for restaurant reservations and table management. The product will initially be launched in India, Australia and UAE. Zomato Book aims to simplify table management, maximize table occupancy and save time during shift rollovers.

Zomato Base

Zomato acquired MaplePOS in 2015 and renamed it Zomato Base. Base is a cloud-based point of sale product for restaurants. It offers merchants features such as menu, inventory and recipe management, real time analytics, electronic receipts etc. It even has a built-in payment solution to accept debit and credit card payments. The product is still being readied, and currently there is little information as to when it'll be available to merchants.

Blog

The Zomato blog section features a blog maintained by the Zomato team. They've also introduced a community blog which talks about all the events organized for users by the Zomato team globally. 

Events (discontinued)

The Events section on Zomato was introduced in September 2011[46]. This coincided with Zomato's announcement of raising their second round of funding of $3 million from Info Edge (India) Ltd. Later, Zomato shut down its events section and included some of the features into its core restaurant product as confirmed by Zomato's CEO, Deepinder Goyal on Quora.[47]

Culture

Zomato offices are full of enthusiastic, young, and eager individuals. In spite of the heights it has grown to, the underlying belief of the company is that they are still a startup, and have accomplished only 1% of their target[48].

Currently, the company employs over 2,000 employees. Zomato believes that it owes a lot of its success to its people, who work incredibly hard to make it happen. Zomato is known for the hands-on-experience it gives to all its employees, regardless of which level they enter, because of the ownership of work it trusts them with. By ensuring that everyone feels and knows that they're building something big and making a difference, the team always puts their best foot forward and pushes boundaries to deliver the best that they can.

Zomato practices desklessness - which is largely a way of indicating to employees that they need to be flexible in terms of roles, locations, and reporting structures. By working outside traditional role boundaries and definitions, Zomans contribute across functions and that helps keep the teams close-knit and efficient.

The company has an open feedback policy and encourages everyone to give feedback to others at any point of time. It has also built a flat hierarchy, and ensured that everyone, including the founders are approachable at all times. This feedback system guarantees that the company as well as the Zomans know how they can improve and grow, and ensures that everyone is heading in the right direction.

Zomato's success story is an incredible one, and the only way it made it so f

ar is by recruiting hardworking people who have a sense of urgency in them. More than skills, it is a culture fit that is a hiring criteria. 

verage

Zomato covers over 331,200 restaurants in 22 countries.[49]

See Also

References

  1. ^ "Zomato raises Rs 227 crore from Sequoia, InfoEdge for overseas expansion". The Times Of India. November 7, 2013.
  2. ^ "Zomato.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2015-02-01.
  3. ^ "Zomato acquires Urbanspoon, enters US market; restaurant coverage to touch a million". Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  4. ^ Verma, Shrutika. "Zomato expands menu in one-stop-shop quest". http://www.livemint.com/. Retrieved 2015-08-11. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  5. ^ "Top 25 most promising internet companies in India by SmartTechie Magazine".
  6. ^ "InfoEdge to Invest INR 4.7 Cr in Foodiebay".
  7. ^ "How Foodiebay became Zomato".
  8. ^ "Zomato launches first local-search android application".
  9. ^ "People looking for food porn come to Zomato.xxx, says founder Deepinder Goyal - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  10. ^ "Zomato Launches Printed Food Guide; Monetization, International Expansion, WP7 App".
  11. ^ "India's Zomato Expands into Print Restaurant Guides".
  12. ^ "Zomato Goes International; Now in Dubai". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  13. ^ "After UAE, Zomato expands into Sri Lanka; adds a Colombo section | Techcircle.in - India startups, internet, mobile, e-commerce, software, online businesses, technology, venture capital, angel, seed funding". techcircle.vccircle.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  14. ^ "Zomato expands Middle Eastern presence with Doha launch | Mideaster - Middle East News". mideaster.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  15. ^ "After UAE & Sri Lanka, Zomato expands into Europe; adds a London section | Techcircle.in - India startups, internet, mobile, e-commerce, software, online businesses, technology, venture capital, angel, seed funding". techcircle.vccircle.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  16. ^ "Zomato launches in South Africa » NextBigWhat". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  17. ^ "Update: Zomato Breaks Even In India; Expands To New Zealand". MediaNama. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  18. ^ "Zomato tackles new languages for first time, takes restaurant listings to Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil".
  19. ^ "Zomato buys New Zealand's MenuMania for Rs 5 crore". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  20. ^ Pani, Priyanka. "Zomato acquires Lunchtime, Obedovat for $3.25 mn". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  21. ^ "Zomato acquires Poland's Gastronauci, fourth acquisition in three months - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  22. ^ "Zomato launches in Canada". MediaNama. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  23. ^ "Zomato launches Lebanon section; expands into Middle East". www.exchange4media.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  24. ^ "Zomato launches in Ireland, opens revenue source by making advertisement live on its app - Firstpost". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  25. ^ Shu, Catherine. "Restaurant Discovery Site Zomato Buys IAC's Urbanspoon, Enters The U.S." TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  26. ^ "Zomato strikes 7th deal, buys Turkish firm". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  27. ^ "Zomato Gets A New Heart". www.afaqs.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  28. ^ "Zomato: A Spoonful Of Change?". www.afaqs.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  29. ^ Crabtree, James (2015-07-15). "Europe expansion on the menu for India's Zomato". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  30. ^ Ghoshal, Abhimanyu. "Zomato Buys MaplePOS to Offer Restaurant Reservations". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  31. ^ Lunden, Ingrid. "Zomato Buys NexTable To Rival OpenTable And Yelp In Reservations". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  32. ^ "Info Edge to invest Rs 4.7 cr in Foodiebay - The Smart Investor". smartinvestor.business-standard.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  33. ^ "Info Edge to invest Rs 13.5cr in Zomato.com". www.moneycontrol.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  34. ^ "Info Edge invests $2.3M more in Zomato, ups stake to 48.5% | Techcircle.in - India startups, internet, mobile, e-commerce, software, online businesses, technology, venture capital, angel, seed funding". techcircle.vccircle.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  35. ^ "Zomato raises 4th round of funding". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  36. ^ "Sequoia leads $37M funding round in Zomato | VCCircle". www.vccircle.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  37. ^ "Zomato raises $60 million from Vy Capital, Info Edge & Sequoia". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  38. ^ "Zomato Cashless". Zomato. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  39. ^ "Zomato Order – the quickest way to order food online!". Zomato. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  40. ^ "Zomato Book". Zomato. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  41. ^ "Zomato Book". Zomato. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  42. ^ "Zomato acquires Urbanspoon". Dream Weaver Diaries. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  43. ^ "Zomato to Enable Cashless Payments in Restaurants on February 1, Starting With Dubai". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  44. ^ "Zomato rolls out online ordering of food in updated app; to allow cash-less payments | Techcircle.in - India startups, internet, mobile, e-commerce, software, online businesses, technology, venture capital, angel, seed funding". techcircle.vccircle.com. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  45. ^ "Zomato to Launch Table Reservation Service 'Book' in July". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  46. ^ "Updated: Zomato Adds An Events Section; Time To Get Into Online Bookings?". MediaNama. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  47. ^ "Why has Zomato removed the 'Events' tab from their Homepage header?". Quora. August 3, 2012.
  48. ^ "About | Zomato". Zomato. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  49. ^ "Restaurants in India, United Kingdom, UAE, South Africa, Philippines, New Zealand, Qatar & Sri Lanka. Delhi Restaurants, Mumbai Restaurants, Gurgaon Restaurants, London Restaurants, Dubai Restaurants, Bangalore Restaurants, Pune, Abu Dhabi, Colombo, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Sharjah, Manila, Auckland, Wellington, Cape Town, Johannesburg Restaurants". zomato.com. Retrieved 14 February 2015.