Swiggy Temporarily Shuts Down Its Genie Service In 3 Major Cities

Food and grocery delivery platform Swiggy has temporarily shut down its pickup and dropoff service in three major cities. Swiggy app shows that the Genie service is temporarily unavailable in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. 

“Swiggy Genie is temporarily unavailable in 3 out of the 68 cities. The cricketing and festive season has resulted in a surge in demand for servicing the requirements for both the food marketplace and Instamart, requiring us to prioritise these deliveries accordingly. We hope to resume Swiggy Genie in the impacted cities soon,” a Swiggy spokesperson told Inc42.

The service has been unavailable for the past few days, primarily due to the fact that the company is facing difficulties in hiring delivery workforce and keeping up with the demand, ET reported.

The pandemic-led increase in demand for delivery services led to more opportunities for gig workers. However, inflation and hike in fuel prices have made it difficult for many food and grocery delivery startups to increase their payouts for riders, resulting in a supply side issue. Moreover, the requirement for gig workers in the quick commerce segment has also impacted the supply situation in major cities.

Swiggy launched its Genie service in 2020 amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. It revamped its offering ‘Swiggy Go’ to launch the hyperlocal delivery service Genie. When Swiggy entered the segment, Bengaluru-based Dunzo was the primary player in the segment. In addition, Swiggy also launched the Instamart service in 2020. 

After the quick commerce trend started picking up last year, Swiggy went bullish on its express grocery delivery platform Instamart last year. It announced plans to invest $700 Mn in  Instamart. 

To increase its share in the highly competitive segment, Instamart has associated with Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 as official partner. The food-delivery platform launched four television commercials last month as part of its brand campaign for IPL 2022.  In the quick commerce segment, Instamart competes against the likes of Dunzo, Zepto, BB Now, Ola Dash, among others. 

“This IPL season, we aim to highlight how Swiggy, with both Instamart and food delivery, will make the match-viewing ritual for fans who are watching with family, friends or just by themselves more enjoyable. The ads bring alive the convenience users turn to Swiggy for, while also underlining the brand’s benefits in a likable and engaging manner,” Ashish Lingamneni, head of brand, at Swiggy, said at the time of campaign launch.