Zomato Hikes Platform Fee To INR 10 Amid Festive Rush

Foodtech major Zomato has hiked its platform fee for the fourth time this year, to INR 10, ahead of the festive season. 

This marks a 400% increase since it began charging platform fees on orders last August at INR 2. 

According to a notification on the app, “This fee helps us pay our bills to keep Zomato running. To maintain services during the festive season, it has increased slightly.”

In the year so far, it first increased the charges to INR 4 per order across key markets on New Year. Then, it hiked the same by 25% to INR 5 per order across its key markets in April. This was followed by increasing it to INR 6 in July.

It is pertinent to note that last year Zomato temporarily increased the fee to INR 9. 

As a result of its subsequent hikes in the platform fee Zomato has seen a notable increase in the share of platform fee revenue within its overall revenue. 

For the quarter ending September of the financial year 2024-25 (FY25), the company collected INR 75 Cr from the platform fee, marking its most lucrative quarter ever in terms of platform fee. This surge was driven by the fee hike of INR 6 in July. 

Sequentially, this is a 41.5% increase from the platform fee collection for Q1 FY25 at INR 53 Cr. In the two quarters of FY25, the company collected a total sum of INR 128 Cr. Not to mention, Zomato collected INR 83 Cr as a platform fee in FY24

It is pertinent to note that the Platform fee is among the top three sources of adjusted revenue for the company alongside revenue from operations and actual customer delivery charges paid in the food business. 

On the financial front, Zomato saw its net profit slump 30% to INR 176 Cr in Q2 of FY25 from INR 253 Cr posted in the preceding June quarter. 

However, its operating revenue grew more than 14% to INR 4,799 Cr in the reported quarter from INR 4,206 Cr in Q1 FY25. 

This slump was attributed to the rise in certain expense buckets and INR 76 Cr tax incurred by the company. 

On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, Zomato’s operating revenue jumped 68.5% from INR 2,848 Cr in the September quarter of the previous fiscal and PAT jumped 389% from INR 36 Cr.

While the food delivery’s gross order value (GOV) rose 5% sequentially to INR 9,690 Cr in Q2 FY25, its quick commerce business Blinkit’s GOV witnessed an even bigger surge of 25% QoQ to INR 6,132 Cr.

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