Online food delivery platform Zomato has rolled out the iteration of its dining-out program Zomato Pay in a few Indian cities, including New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. The foodtech company had piloted this feature in Hyderabad this year. 

Using this new feature on the Zomato app, customers from these cities can make payments at partner restaurants using cashback and discounts using Zomato Pay. 

The online app-based food delivery platform launched the new service as a replacement for Zomato Pro. 

Unlike Zomato Pro, Zomato Pay is not a subscription-based platform, allowing customers to utilise its benefits for free. The newly-launched feature includes ‘Vibe Check'. Through this, the partner restaurants will find it easy to promote themselves by posting short videos, similar to Instagram stories, to improve the discovery of their location. 

The development comes amid the ongoing tussle between the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and foodtech giants Zomato and Swiggy. According to various reports, nearly 900 restaurants from the food and beverage industry have delisted Zomato, Swiggy and Dineout or have sent delisting notices as a result of this tug-of-war. 

This disagreement notwithstanding, the Indian foodtech unicorns made it to the world’s ‘Top 10’ e-commerced-based food delivery companies based on the report published by Canada-based global research firm ETC Group, titled ‘Food Barons 2022– Crisis Profiteering, Digitalisation, and Shifting Power. Zomato achieved the 10th spot while Swiggy achieved the 9th, Mint reported.