 "Zomato's Deepinder Goyal says you'll soon be able to pay for meals with their app")
Though, a late-comer, Zomato now allows for online payment and ordering services on its platform. Recently it also launched the ‘Check-in’ feature, letting its users to know others socially and also, perhaps interact. Deepinder Goyal, Co- Founder**,** Zomato, talks to Firstbiz about its new launches and the recent acquisition of Poland- based restaurant search service company Gastronauci.
Edited excerpts from the interview:
How big is Gastronauci in Poland?
It is the leader there and I think it’s five times larger than the second player [in Poland].
Will there be any more acquisitions this year?
We are evaluating one more and have started talking. I don’t know how much time that will take.
How will you integrate Gastronauci to Zomato? How long will it take?
We will move all the traffic from Gastronauci to Zomato. We will redirect the traffic to our page, which means, first we will have to come up with a Polish version of Zomato. Then we will move all the content and user accounts to the new platform. It will take around three months for everything to be sorted out.
Will it be the same team or do you plan to get new people?
It’s a very small team there and I think going forward 99 percent of the employees will be new. Gastronauci has very good traffic. They have just not been able to tap and monetize that. We will work with them and with the help of their traffic, it will be much bigger than what Gastronauci is right now.
Do you also plan to start online payments?
We will start online payments for both deliveries and dine-ins that users will be able to use only through the Zomato app. After giving your order, the restaurant will ask whether you want to pay through Zomato or cash. If you pay through Zomato, it will be a swift one-swipe transaction. The transaction will be just like Uber, where you don’t need to pull out your credit card, but just open the app and pay.
When will the online payments and ordering start and in how many cities?
We are starting out with just Delhi and once it is ready to scale up, we will take it to different countries. Depending on how the testing behind the screen goes, we will launch it within 15 days to a month. Our employees have already started using it. We have around 100 restaurants listed in Delhi.
What is the share that Zomato will take for the online payment service?
We have not figured that out yet, but right now it’s all about making sure that people use the app and pay through Zomato. Once people start using it, we will figure out the shares. Online payment is the easiest thing to monetize.
What are your plans for advertising in the app?
We plan to attract hyper-local advertisements which can be relevant for users. We are not pushing this plan right now, but next week users in Saket [in Delhi] will start seeing advertisements.
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