Inside Zomato Gold: The discounts programme that has restaurants vexed

The Zomato Gold loyalty programme, a favourite of frequent diners, has become a pain-point for restaurants who allege that heavy discounting on restaurant food under the programme is hurting their business.

Launched in January 2018, Zomato Gold allows diners to avail an extra drink or an extra food item at the cost of one. According to the latest figures, 6,450 restaurants are signed up on Gold. Recently, Zomato went a step further and opened up Gold for online ordering as well.

In a sense, Gold is an extension of a few other loyalty programmes tried in the past. Zomato shut