India’s quick food delivery face-off: Whose data is it anyway?

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. That successful online aggregators would loom ever larger over the small suppliers enrolled on their platforms was obvious all along. Equally foreseeable was how this would tilt power equations in favour of any big consumer interface, whose potential role as a market gateway was a big draw for its investors in the first place.

Suppliers might be called ‘partners,’ but it’s an uneven partnership. But does it call for antitrust scrutiny? The latest to feel the heat are eateries worried by quick-food delivery services launched by online majors, which they fear will source food from third-party suppliers and even set up their own ‘cloud kitchens’ (like dark stores), leaving them in the lurch. Quick-food delivery is an offspring of Q-commerce.

Its pioneer Zepto came up with a ‘cafe app’ offering beverages and edibles sent across within 10 minutes. Restaurant food deliverer Swiggy made a similar offer with its Snacc app, while the Zomato-owned Q-com player Blinkit unveiled Bistro to contest this space. Calling these services an “abuse of dominance," the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) reportedly wants to sue Swiggy and Zomato for allegedly “taking unfair advantage of our data and entering our territory." As quick food delivery is a nascent business, how it will evolve is not yet clear.

The promise of swiftness, which sets such a service apart, implies that preparation time must be kept minimal. It is thus best suited to heat-and-serve items rather than made-to-order dishes. The NRAI has no objection to any speedy options offered by Swiggy and Zomato that generate orders for restaurants.