#Logout campaign trends; Zomato to work out the issue

Against the deep discounting practices of online food delivery platforms like Zomato Gold over 300 restaurants in Gurugram under the umbrella of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) on Thursday observed a #Logout campaign.

These restaurants reportedly delisted themselves from "platforms such as Zomato Gold, EazyDiner, Dineout's Gourmet Passport, Nearbuy, MagicPin among others".

"The situation is now aggravated through the anytime, anywhere, any-day discounting behaviour by aggregators. So now restaurants have come together to detox consumers from discount addiction," NRAI president Rahul Singh was quoted as saying.

Home-grown restaurant search and delivery platform Zomato last month introduced the "Infinity Dining" plan for its "Gold" subscribers that allows them to have unlimited a la carte at partner restaurants.

"For the same price that users would spend on a typical two-course meal, they can now order anything and everything you want from the entire menu (yes, the entire menu!) with unlimited servings of their favourite dishes," Gaurav Gupta, Chief Operating Officer & Co-founder, Zomato, wrote in a blog post.

Zomato said its Gold subscription programme has grown almost 100 per cent in the past eight months.

The plan has been introduced in partnership with 350 restaurants - with at least a 3.5 rating -- in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

The restaurants under the NRAI in Delhi and Mumbai have also reportedly threatened to delist from these dining platforms.

Last month, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) officials met representatives from online food delivery firms like Zomato and Swiggy and offline industry leaders and directed them to sit and solve their differences and boost equitable growth in the industry.

The meeting was called to discuss issues such as deep discounting and opening up of private label brands by the online food platforms that has affected the operations of offline restaurants across the country.

On Saturday evening, Zomato’s founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal took to Twitter requesting restaurant owners to stop the logout campaign and urged restaurant partners to initiate a dialogue with aggregators.

“In the interest of consumers, we request restaurant owners, to stop the logout campaign, and have a collaborative discussion with internet aggregators for finding a sustainable way forward," Goyal tweeted.

He acknowledged that the company had made mistakes and “things haven’t gone as planned. This is a wake-up call that we need to do 100x more for our restaurant partners than we have done before."

He further added that Zomato remained committed to working with the industry and making modifications to its Gold membership platform “which will result in a win-win situation for restaurants and consumers."

He said that the Gold programme—a paid membership for diners that offers deals such as one plus one on food and drinks—had been a major hit since its launch, but bargain hunters who had joined Zomato Gold were hurting some segments of the restaurant industry.