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Zomato

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Zomato
Screenshot
File:Zomato screenshot.jpg
The Zomato homepage in Greater Vancouver
Type of businessPrivate
Available inEnglish, Turkish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Spanish, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Italian
FoundedJuly 2008 (2008-07)
HeadquartersDLF Phase V, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Deepinder Goyal, Pankaj Chaddah[1]
Key people
IndustryConsumer Services
ServicesRestaurant Search & Discovery, Online Ordering, Table Reservations & Management, POS Systems, Subscription Services
Employees2500+[2]
URLzomato.com
AdvertisingYes
RegistrationOptional
Users90 million visits monthly [3]
Current statusOnline
Native client(s) onWindows Phone, iOS, watchOS, Android, Universal Windows Platform (Windows 10 Mobile, Windows 10)

Zomato is a restaurant search and discovery service founded in 2008 by Indian entrepreneurs Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. It currently operates in 23 countries.[5] It provides information and reviews on restaurants, including images of menus where the restaurant does not have its own website.

History

Countries where Zomato is available.

The restaurant search and discovery platform began its operations under the name, Foodiebay. In November 2010, the brand was renamed as Zomato.[6]

By 2011, Zomato launched in Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.[7] With the introduction of .xxx domains in 2011, Zomato also launched zomato.xxx, a site dedicated to food porn.[8] The company launched a print version of the website content named, "Citibank Zomato Restaurant Guide", in collaboration with Citibank in May 2012, but it has since been discontinued.[9]

In September 2012, Zomato expanded overseas to the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka,[10] Qatar,[11] the United Kingdom,[12] the Philippines, and South Africa.[13] In 2013, the company launched in New Zealand,[14] Turkey, Brazil, and Indonesia with its website and apps available in Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese, Indonesian, and English.[15]

In April 2014, Zomato launched its services in Portugal, followed by launches in Canada,[16] Lebanon and Ireland[17][18] the same year.

The acquisition of Seattle-based food portal Urbanspoon marked the firm's entry into the United States, Canada and Australia, and brought it into direct competition with Yelp, Zagat and OpenTable.

In February 2017, Zomato in a company's blog, explained the concept of cloud kitchen. With its cloud kitchen, the company will help the restaurants to expand their presence without incurring any fixed costs.[19]

In September 2017, Zomato claimed that the company had "turned profitable" in the 24 countries it currently operates in. Furthermore, Zomato announced that the "zero commission model" is to be introduced for partner restaurants.[20]

Zomato narrowed down its losses by 34% to ₹389 Cr for the financial year 2016-17, from Rs 590.1 Cr crore in the previous year 2015-16.[21][22]

Investments

Between 2010-13, Zomato raised approximately US$16.7 million from Info Edge India, giving them a 57.9% stake in Zomato.[23][24][25] In November 2013, it raised an additional US$37 million from Sequoia Capital and Info Edge India.[26]

In November 2014, Zomato completed another round of funding of US$60 million at a post-money valuation of ~US$660 million. This round of funding was being led jointly by Info Edge India and Vy Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital.[27]

In April 2015, Info Edge India, Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital led another round of funding for US$50 million.[28] This was followed by another US$60 million funding led by Temasek, a Singapore government-owned investment company, along with Vy Capital in September.[29] Zomato's total funding of ~$225 million primarily comes from four investors - Info Edge, Sequoia India, Vy Capital, and Temasek Holdings.[30]

Acquisitions

In July 2014, Zomato made its first acquisition by buying Menu-mania for an undisclosed sum.[31] The company pursued other acquisitions such as lunchtime.cz and obedovat.sk for a combined US$3.25 million.[32] In September 2014, Zomato acquired Poland-based restaurant search service Gastronauci for an undisclosed sum.[33] Three months later, it acquired Italian restaurant search service Cibando.[34]

Zomato acquired Seattle-based food portal Urbanspoon for an estimated $60 million in 2015.[35] Other acquisitions of 2015 include Mekanist in an all-cash deal,[36] the Delhi based startup MapleGraph that built MaplePOS (renamed as Zomato Base[37], and NexTable, a US-based table reservation and restaurant management platform.[38]

In 2016, the company acquired Sparse Labs, a logistics technology startup[39] and the food delivery startup, Runnr, in 2017.[40]

In September 2018, Zomato acquired Bengaluru-based food e-marketplace TongueStun Food for about $18 Mn in a cash and stock deal.[41]

Zomato security breaches

On 4 June 2015, an Indian security researcher hacked the Zomato website and gained access to information about 62.5 million users. Using the vulnerability, he was able to access personal data of users such as phone number, email address, and Instagram private photos using their Instagram access token. Zomato fixed the issue within 48 hours of it becoming apparent.[42] On 15 October 2015, Zomato changed business strategies from a Full-Stack market to an Enterprise market. This led Zomato to fire 10% of its workforce, around 300 people.[43]

Wikinews has related news:

On 18 May 2017, a security blog called Hackread claimed over 17 million accounts had been breached. "The database includes emails and password hashes of Zomato users, while the price was set for the whole package is $1,001.43 (Bitcoins 0.5587). The vendor also shared a trove of sample data to prove it is legit", the Hackread's post said. Hackread claimed details of 17 million users had meanwhile been sold on the Dark Web. Zomato confirmed that names, email addresses and encrypted passwords were taken from its database. The company reassured affected customers that no payment information or credit card details were stolen.

Zomato said the security measures it uses ensure the stolen passwords can't be converted back into normal text, but it still urged users who use the same password on other services to change them. It also logged the affected users out of the app and reset their passwords. "So far, it looks like an internal (human) security breach - some employee's development account got compromised", the company said in a blog post but later, when Zomato contacted the hacker, they discovered a loophole in their security. The hacker removed the stolen content from Dark Web asking for a healthy bug bounty programme.[44]

References

  1. ^ "In Depth Interview with Pankaj Chaddah, Founder of Zomato". The Startup Magazine. 7 November 2013.
  2. ^ https://www.linkedin.com/company/zomato
  3. ^ https://www.similarweb.com/website/zomato.com
  4. ^ "Zomato.com Site Infosite". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  5. ^ "Zomato acquires Urbanspoon, enters US market; restaurant coverage to touch a million". Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  6. ^ "How Foodiebay became Zomato". businesstoday.in. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  7. ^ "Zomato launches first local-search android application". indiainfoline.com. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  8. ^ "People looking for food porn come to Zomato.xxx, says founder Deepinder Goyal". Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  9. ^ "Zomato Launches Printed Food Guide; Monetization, International Expansion, WP7 App". medianama.com. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  10. ^ "After UAE, Zomato expands into Sri Lanka; adds a Colombo section". techcircle.vccircle.com. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  11. ^ "Zomato expands Middle Eastern presence with Doha launch". mideaster.com. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  12. ^ "After UAE & Sri Lanka, Zomato expands into Europe; adds a London section". techcircle.vccircle.com. 9 January 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  13. ^ "Zomato launches in South Africa » NextBigWhat". Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  14. ^ "Update: Zomato Breaks Even In India; Expands To New Zealand". MediaNama.com. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  15. ^ "Zomato tackles new languages for first time, takes restaurant listings to Indonesia, Turkey, Brazilwebsite=techinasia.com". Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  16. ^ "Zomato launches in Canada". MediaNama.com. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  17. ^ "Zomato launches Lebanon section; expands into Middle East". exchange4media.com. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  18. ^ "Zomato launches in Ireland, opens revenue source by making advertisement live on its app". Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  19. ^ "Inside Zomato's Push Towards Cloud Kitchen - And The Road To Profitability? - Inc42 Media". inc42.com. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  20. ^ "Zomato Claims To Be Profitable, Introduces Zero Commission For Partner Restaurants". inc42.com. Retrieved 21 September 2017.
  21. ^ "With revenue servings up at 81%, Zomato cuts losses by 34% in FY17". The Economic Times. 29 June 2017.
  22. ^ Sharma, Disha (29 June 2017). "Zomato losses shrink in FY17, revenue grows 81%". VCCircle.
  23. ^ "Info Edge to invest Rs 13.5cr in Zomato.com". moneycontrol.com. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  24. ^ "Info Edge invests $2.3M more in Zomato, ups stake to 48.5%". techcircle.vccircle.com. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  25. ^ "Zomato raises 4th round of funding". Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  26. ^ "Sequoia leads $37M funding round in Zomato". vccircle.com. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  27. ^ "Zomato raises $60 million from Vy Capital, Info Edge & Sequoia". Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  28. ^ "Zomato raises Rs 311 crore from existing investors". 11 April 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  29. ^ "Zomato raises $60 mn from Temasek and Vy Capital". Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  30. ^ "Zomato Raises $60 Million From Temasek and Vy Capital". NDTV Gadgets360.com. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  31. ^ "Zomato buys New Zealand's MenuMania for Rs 5 crore". Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  32. ^ Pani, Priyanka. "Zomato acquires Lunchtime, Obedovat for $3.25 mn". Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  33. ^ "Zomato acquires Poland's Gastronauci, fourth acquisition in three months". Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  34. ^ Verma, Shrutika (19 December 2014). "Zomato buys Italy's Cibando, to enter 15 more countries in 2015". livemint.com. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  35. ^ Dunn, Matthew (15 January 2015). "Restaurant discovery service Zomato buys Urbanspoon for $60 million". News Limited. News.com.au. Retrieved 21 September 2017.
  36. ^ "Zomato strikes 7th deal, buys Turkish firm". Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  37. ^ Ghoshal, Abhimanyu. "Zomato Buys MaplePOS to Offer Restaurant Reservations". Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  38. ^ Lunden, Ingrid. "Zomato Buys NexTable To Rival OpenTable And Yelp In Reservations". TechCrunch. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  39. ^ Chanchani, Madhav (27 September 2016). "Zomato acquires logistics tech startup Sparse Labs". The Economic Times. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  40. ^ Sen, Anirban (13 September 2017). "Zomato acquires food delivery start-up Runnr". https://www.livemint.com/. Retrieved 29 August 2018. {{cite news}}: External link in |work= (help)
  41. ^ "Zomato Acquires Food Startup TongueStun for $18 Mn". Inc42 Media. 05 September 2018. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  42. ^ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  43. ^ "Shifting focus to what matters and what works". Zomato: Official Blog. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  44. ^ blog.zomato.com/post/160791675411/security-notice
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