Chole Bhature, Biryani, Momos: What's India ordering most on Zomato?

While traders and investors, including Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies who holds around 5 per cent of this stock in his India long-only equity portfolio – have been nibbling at the counter in the past one year and have taken it higher by around 36 per cent during this period, Indians across the top cities – National Capital Region (NCR), Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata & Ahmedabad – have been busy ordering North Indian fare the most on Zomato in the last one year, suggests a recent report by Jefferies.

The research and broking house has analysed data available on Zomato Food Trends (ZFT) – a platform launched in June 2023 that provides granular visibility into Zomato’s supply-demand trends across cuisines and geographies – between July 2022 and May 2023.

"North Indian cuisine dominates on Zomato with almost around 25 per cent contribution to both orders and gross merchendise value (GMV), followed by Biryani. Asian (Oriental/Chinese) gets ordered as much as Pizza, closely followed by South Indian food, all of which are around 9-10 per cent in terms of order volume. Of course, city-wise dynamics are different — so, north Indian food is 32 per cent in Delhi (NCR) compared to 18-20 per cent in Bangalore/Hyderabad and 13 per cent in Chennai,” wrote Vivek Maheshwari, Jithin John and Kunal Shah of Jefferies in a recent note.

These cities - NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata and Ahmedabad - contribute over 55 per cent of Zomato's orders. Interestingly, NCR, the report said, alone is the largest market for Zomato that contributes 15 per cent of its orders, while Bangalore is at 11 per cent, followed by Mumbai at 9 per cent.

"At all India level, Chicken Biryani is the #1 dish followed by Chaat (street food). Chicken Biryani is also in the top for 4 out of top-8 cities with other four - NCR, Mumbai, Pune & Ahmedabad - prioritising Chaat, as the numero uno dish. On a per-dish basis, the average price point in most cuisines is well below Rs 250. An average north Indian dish sells at Rs 169, while a south Indian dish comes to Rs 109. A typical pizza retails at Rs 220, while Biryani has the highest average selling price (ASP) at Rs 248 among popular cuisines, based on the data reported," Jefferies said. CHECK ZOMATO'S TOP DISHES HERE

Meanwhile, Zomato has maintained its lead over rival Swiggy with a 55 per cent market share in the food delivery space in calendar year 2022 (CY22), compared with Swiggy’s 45 per cent, suggests a recent note by Kotak Institutional Equities (KIE).

Zomato’s gross merchandise value (GMV) for its food delivery business came in at $3.2 billion, up 26 per cent year-on-year (YoY). ON the other hand, Swiggy’s GMV for its core food delivery business came in at $2.6 billion, up 26 per cent YoY, while the GMV of its grocery delivery arm Instamart increased 459 per cent YoY.