Your food bill is about to rise: Swiggy, Zomato hike platform fees; check new rates here

Hyderabad: If you are planning to order your favourite biryani or a quick snack today, be prepared to shell out a few extra rupees.

India’s leading food delivery giants, Swiggy and Zomato, have once again hiked their ‘platform fees’, making every meal ordered through these apps more expensive.

In the latest round of price revisions, Swiggy has increased its platform fee from the previous Rs 14.99 to a new high of Rs 17.58. This represents a sharp jump in a single revision. Meanwhile, its primary competitor, Zomato, has also recently hiked its platform fee to Rs 14.90.

The staggering rise from Rs 2 to Rs 17.58

It is worth noting that this ‘convenience tax’ is a relatively new phenomenon. When these aggregators first introduced the platform fee in early 2023, it started at a nominal Rs 2 per order, as per some reports.

Why is your food bill rising?

While the companies officially maintain a ‘no comment’ stance on their pricing strategies, the move is a direct reflection of mounting operational expenditures.

Speaking to NewsMeter on the condition of anonymity, an industry source explained that the cost of maintaining these massive digital marketplaces is now being passed directly to the end-user.

The breakdown of the rising expenditure includes:

1. Technology and App Maintenance: The high cost of cloud infrastructure and tech stacks required to support millions of real-time orders.

2. Payments to Gig Workers: Rising costs related to the retention, insurance and incentives for the massive fleet of delivery partners.

3. Indirect Fuel Impact: While riders pay for their own fuel, the overall logistics and administrative overheads for the companies have scaled up with inflation.

4. Profitability and IPO Pressures: With Zomato focusing on quarterly profits and Swiggy gearing up for its massive IPO, every rupee added to the ‘take rate’ strengthens their financial position.