From Zomato to Oyo, massive surge in orders, bookings on New Year’s Eve

New Delhi, Jan 1 (IANS) Food delivery platforms like Zomato and Swiggy and quick commerce platforms like Blinkit and Zepto, along with hospitality major Oyo, saw highest-ever orders and bookings on the New Year’s Eve, compared to previous years.

The quick grocery and food delivery platforms received huge orders as revellers preferred to stay home to celebrate the New Year.

“We have delivered almost as many orders on NYE 23 as we did on NYE 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 combined. Excited about the future!” Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal posted on X.

Albinder Dhindsa, CEO, Blinkit said they crossed the total number of orders they did on NYE 2022 in the evening only.

“We’ve already hit highest-ever orders in a day, OPM (orders per minute), soft drinks and tonic water sold in a day, chips sold in a day, tips given to riders in a day (thank you India),” Dhindsa informed.

“And it’s not slowing down! All systems and stores holding up well till now,” he added.

Goyal posted that 3.2 lakh+ delivery partners across @zomato and @letsblinkit served India on the New Year’s Eve.

A user from Lucknow placed an order worth Rs 33,683 on Blinkit, while a Kolkata person placed an order worth Rs 48,950 on Swiggy Instamart.

“India is partying like never before to ring in 2024,” Rohit Kapoor, CEO, Swiggy, posted on X.

“NYE 2024 broke all records across Swiggy Food and Instamart ! With the team at the stroke of midnight — could not be happier,” Kapoor posted with a photo of his team at work.

A Swiggy spokesperson said that in preparation for the day, “we’ve been working with restaurant partners to extend serviceability, stocking up at Swiggy instamart pods, and ensuring our delivery fleet is at full strength”.

“We’ve also seen a remarkable surge in the number of year-end party bookings on Dineout. Dineout is also being used for reservations this year,” said the spokesperson.

Zepto, India’s first unicorn of last year, said it saw a definitive surge in orders.

“We had the privilege of serving 2.1 million more customers on our platform compared to the same time last year. 1.88 million monthly transacting users (MTUs) in Dec 2022 versus 4.04 million MTUs in December 2023,” said Aadit Palicha, co-founder and CEO of Zepto.

Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO of Oyo, said that both domestic and international bookings surged on New Year’s Eve.

“Last minute plans are driving global tourism. Between December 30 and 31 this year, we received 230k+ last minute bookings globally,” he posted on X.

Agarwal said that Oyo received more than 620,000 bookings for New Year Eve in 2023.

“We are up by 37 per cent from last year as last minute bookings rise. Ayodhya saw a 70 per cent jump in Oyo app users vs Goa (50 per cent) and Nainital (60 per cent),” he informed.

–IANS

na/prw