Zomato Ltd. called the recent hike in its platform fee a routine business matter, in an exchange filing on Thursday. This comes a day after the food delivery giant increased the fee to Rs 10 per order, a 67% jump from the previous fee of Rs 6 per order.
These hikes are done from time to time and may vary from city to city, it added. The increased fee helps the platform pay its bills to keep it running, Zomato said in a notification to customers on Wednesday. "To maintain services during festive rush, it has increased slightly."
Following the move, competitor Swiggy Ltd. also raised its platform fee to Rs 10 from Rs 7 per order.
Zomato received 9.29 crore orders in the second quarter of the current financial year, a 17% sequential increase, according to an investor presentation. During financial year 2023, Zomato catered to about 64.7 crore orders via its platform.
The platform recorded a 0.89 crore average monthly transacting customer in the second quarter, a 5.6% increase from the previous quarter.
The company has been raising its platform fee from August 2023. It last hiked it to Rs 6 earlier this year in July. In the March-quarter shareholders' letter, Zomato cited the platform fee as one of the major reasons for an improvement in its margins.
Zomato's net profit fell in the second quarter of fiscal 2025 to miss analysts' estimates, even as the food delivery giant continued to expand its top line. Net profit was down 30% at Rs 176 crore in the July-September period. This compares to Rs 253 crore in the preceding quarter ended June 30.
Zomato's quick commerce arm, Blinkit, reported newly launched stores reaching around Rs 7 lakh in GOV per day during their first full quarter, achieving contribution break-even.
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