Tag: zomato

  • Top Brands Employing and Rising with Meme Marketing Strategy

    Marketing is the most important aspect of any business. It not only helps to publicize the business but also contributes to its growth, profit, and success.

    With the advent of digitization and the whole world shifting online, even marketing is going online. Online marketing and advertising are like the basis of a businesses’ success.

    Nowadays, we have various kinds of online marketing. These include email marketing, influencer marketing, social media marketing, etc. Another important kind that is gaining rapid popularity is meme marketing.

    Meme marketing is the latest trend these days. Promoting a product or service while making people smile and laugh, what is better than that? So, keeping this in view, various top brands are now indulging in meme marketing.

    What is a Meme?
    What is Meme Marketing?
    Importance of Meme Marketing
    Brands That Employ Meme Marketing in their Marketing Strategy
    Why Choose Meme Marketing?
    FAQ

    What is a Meme?

    A meme can be described as an image or video which is often amusing. These media circulates all over the internet at a rapid rate. Such images or videos have huge popularity over all the social media platforms.

    The media may contain expressions, dialogues, or famous personalities. When these get presented in an amusing way, it then becomes a meme.

    What is Meme Marketing?

    Explaining Meme Marketing
    Explaining Meme Marketing

    In simple words, when a brand’s marketing strategy includes the use of memes, it’s called meme marketing. Meme marketing is no less than an art.

    It is an art by which the brands display their discounts, deals, and their promotions in a meme. Then they implant these memes in the meme community.

    The meme community consists of the people who create and share memes. This source can be standup comedians, influencers, YouTubers, etc. Brands approach them for their marketing through memes.

    Netflix Meme
    Netflix Meme

    Importance of Meme Marketing

    Meme marketing is one of the latest trends in the field of marketing. It is now used by various brands and businesses to promote themselves. The following points show the importance of meme marketing in today’s time:

    Meme marketing helps a brand connect with its customers. It offers a connection that is more casual and interesting. It offers a humorous way for the brands to market their product and services.

    Gone are the days when marketing was done only through tv ads and newspapers. People spend more time on social media. Meme attracts a huge audience, which makes it the most important marketing method. It helps a brand earn more engagement towards itself.

    The best part is it is a cost-effective method for the brands. Meme marketing is a creative way of marketing. It helps a brand to develop a close relationship with its customers and helps the brand to reach a wide audience by leveraging the meme community.

    Brands That Employ Meme Marketing in their Marketing Strategy

    Nowadays, most brands understand the importance of keeping up with the trends. One such trend is meme marketing. Looking at its importance and power of virality, various brands now indulge in meme marketing. Some of the brands are as follows:

    Zomato

    The moment we think of ordering food, Zomato is probably the first name that pops up in our heads. This brand is a huge success and there is no doubt about it.

    Zomato Meme Marketing
    Zomato Meme Marketing

    Recently, the brand is gaining huge popularity with its meme marketing. When you open Instagram, you will find various memes by Zomato. They use super creative and relatable memes for their advertising. Be it a new series, old dialogues, or anything else, Zomato seems to have a meme for all.

    Zomato Meme Marketing
    Zomato Meme Marketing

    Brand Factory

    Brand Factory offers a variety of brands under one roof. They even give great discounts making it the smartest price seller. Keeping up with the trend, the brand has also inculcated meme marketing in its strategy.

    Brand Factory Meme Marketing
    Brand Factory Meme Marketing

    They share various relatable memes for promotions. Sometime back, it made use of a viral Indian meme- “Hello Fraands, Chai Peelo”. They used it with a change “Hello Fraands, Shopping Karlo”. This meme by the brand went viral and gained huge popularity.

    Disney+ Hotstar

    The OTT platform is a source of various latest and old movies and shows. This Indian brand likes to gain and retain its audience. So, it has taken a dip in the sea of meme marketing.

    Disneyplushotstar Meme Marketing
    Disneyplushotstar Meme Marketing

    Hotstar combines dialogues from various shows and movies to create a meme. The brand even makes Instagram reels to keep up with its meme marketing strategy. They recently used a scene from the movie ‘Kali’ to depict the Monday mood. This way, the brand can create a bond with the audience.

    Netflix

    The OTT platform has a great fan following for itself. Netflix is like an added best friend for today’s generation. It engages in a super creative and effective meme marketing strategy.

    Netflix Meme Marketing
    Netflix Meme Marketing

    Netflix has reached another level of this strategy. They have created an Instagram page called ‘Netflix is a joke/ Netflix Comedy’. This page is wholly denoted to sharing the meme content. The brand even asks its customers to create shareable memes. This makes the customers more active and in turn, helps Netflix to gain more audience.

    Netflixisajoke Instagram Page
    Netflixisajoke Instagram Page

    Tinder India

    The super popular dating app has also included the dose of meme marketing. The brand makes use of memes in various creative ways. They make memes related to zodiacs, movies, festivals, and more.

    Tinder Billboard Advertising
    Tinder Billboard Advertising

    Tinder also includes meme marketing through influencers. The influencers in the meme community help the brand to gain popularity. It also helps the brand to leverage the influencers’ audience as well.


    The Art of Storytelling in Sales (Detailed Guide)
    Storytelling is a very important part of sales because it keeps the customers hooked till the end. Let’s understand how you can market using storytelling.


    Why Choose Meme Marketing?

    The younger generation possesses more buying power. Most of this generation is dependent on online sources rather than offline sources. They spend a lot of their time on social media.

    To gain this huge customer base online, the brands must make shifts in their marketing strategies. One of the most lucrative and effective ways is to inculcate meme marketing.

    Memes are now a means of communication for the youth. Picking up a meme context and adding a promotional aspect to it is the creativity every brand must follow these days.

    It helps a brand to deliver its message in a fun way. Memes are something that goes viral so quickly. This means more audience. Thus, this strategy is too good to be missed by the brands.

    Conclusion

    Meme marketing is the latest trend in today’s world. This marketing strategy must not be missed by any brand. Creating memes for a brand not only helps to gain trust and popularity but also attracts more customers to the brand.

    A meme that has some fun, quirky, and witty elements is perfect. This marketing strategy is super effective that has a knack for creating a place in the audience’s hearts.

    FAQ

    What are the top brands that use meme marketing?

    Netflix, Zomato, Brand Factory and Tinder are some of the top brands that actively use meme marketing.

    Is meme marketing an effective marketing strategy?

    Meme marketing is a great way to market your brand as it increases your brand visibility and engagement.

  • Zomato Hiring Through Referrals Only? Here’s Why

    Zomato is a startup that took the food delivery business to greater heights. It not only delivers food but also provides details, menus, and customer reviews of a restaurant.

    The startup made the food delivery convenient, affordable, reachable, and reliable. It is now India’s most tried and trusted platform for at-home food services.

    Being a successful startup, it attracts various professionals to its workstation. Be it a fresher or an experienced professional, everyone would love to work and learn at Zomato.

    Getting hired at Zomato however, is not a piece of cake. Recently, Zomato has made clear that it hires its employees only via referrals. This means that one cannot directly apply but only with a referral of an already employee.

    Zomato- India’s Most Trusted Food-Delivery Platform
    How Does Zomato Work?
    Work Culture at Zomato
    How Zomato Hires its Employees?
    What is Referral Hiring?
    Why Zomato Hires Through Referrals?
    FAQ

    Zomato- India’s Most Trusted Food-Delivery Platform

    Zomato is a startup that provides online services of food delivery. It functions in collaboration with the Indian restaurants to serve the customers.

    The startup is well-established and has also entered the unicorn club in 2018. The Indian borne company has now various competitors like Swiggy, Uber Eats, etc. But it continues to occupy a huge place in markets and the customers’ hearts.

    Foundation

    The food-tech startup was founded in the year 2008. There are two founders of the platform- Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. At present, Deepinder is the CEO of Zomato.

    Headquarter and Operating Areas

    The headquarters of the startup is in Gurugram, India. Zomato serves in almost every city of India now. Apart from India, the company has now expanded its services worldwide. The other operating countries include- Sri Lanka, South Africa, The United Kingdom, Qatar, The Philippines, etc.

    How Does Zomato Work?

    Zomato in simple words offers suggestions and takes orders from the customers. It acts as a bridge between the customers and the food stations.

    Firstly, a customer opens the app or website and can browse various food stations. Then they can place an order at any particular restaurant. When the restaurant receives the order, it starts prepping the meal. After that, the Zomato delivery partner comes to pick up the order. The order then reaches its home.

    The customer makes the payment and can also share their reviews. Zomato takes a commission from the restaurants for this. In this way, it helps the customers get their favourite meals at ease.

    Work Culture at Zomato

    Zomato offers a professional, learning, and friendly work culture. It is like an ideal working condition for any employee.

    Working at Zomato is great but it is not everyone’s cup of tea. It demands a strong mindset and dedication beyond the 9 to 5 regime. The employees are required to give in their efforts at odd hours and sometimes even on holidays.

    After all, a company so big does need dedication beyond the usual for successful functioning. The best quality about Zomato is, it doesn’t hide its culture. An employee survey was conducted about the working conditions. The result of the survey came on Zomato’s blog and its Twitter handle.


    How Zomato Hires its Employees?

    Zomato Careers Page
    Zomato Careers Page

    Zomato is a tech-based startup. It involves various processes behind its successful functioning. It is not a one-man show to run. It needs a trusted and efficient team.

    There are many fields of work at Zomato. These include- marketing, engineering, designing, advertising, etc.

    In recent times, Zomato declared that it will hire employees only through referrals. It means one cannot give a direct interview on their own. You cannot go to a job portal, apply for a role and bag an interview from there.

    To get in as a professional in Zomato, a person needs a referral from an employee at Zomato. Since the Zomans (employees at Zomato) do not give a referral to everyone, the hiring gets limited. This makes it difficult for various professionals to apply at Zomato.

    What is Referral Hiring?

    Referral hiring is a type of recruitment process of a company. In this, the employees of a company take part in the recruiting process.

    Under this method, the already employees of the company share job vacancies in their company. They share this within their network. Then they provide recommendations to certain candidates who apply. In this way, the hiring process becomes network-based rather than open to all.

    Why Zomato Hires Through Referrals?

    Zomato laid off various employees during the harsh conditions of the pandemic. Now, the company is reviving its employee base at a slow pace. The catch is that the company now hires its technical professionals, product teams, marketing, legal professionals only via referrals.

    Zomato is hiring via referrals from the Zomans to make sure they get the right employees.

    • The company faced losses during the pandemic. This made the company lose its employees as there was not much work for them. So, to keep a check on depreciation rate is also a reason that Zomato hires through referrals.
    • Another major reason includes establishing a simple and clear hiring process. Hiring through referrals means no extra rounds of interviews for the candidates. It saves the company time and effort.
    • Hiring through referrals helps Zomato to focus on the distinctive qualities of candidates. This helps to get the best and the most efficient professionals in the team.
    • This helps Zomato have direct and easy access to the best talent. It makes the process trustworthy because the talent is acquired by their employees.
    • By hiring through referrals Zomato cuts the time and cost of sourcing, screening, negotiation, and coordination.

    Thus, Zomato has decided to make its best team only through referrals.

    Conclusion

    Zomato since its start has come far and made great progress. With its tremendous growth, it is not only customers’ favourite but also an ideal workstation for professionals.

    The company has now made it super clear that they will hire only through employee referrals. The company has laid down on their website that they don’t accept job applications. So, if you know someone at Zomato, reach them and send your attractive application to them.

    Even if you don’t know someone, it’s time to build up your network and connections. With a great skillset, mindset, and networking, you can try to get into this successful startup.

    FAQ

    How do you get selected in Zomato?

    Zomato conducts a series of rounds to select a candidate, Resume Shortlisting, Written Round, Group Discussion, Technical Rounds, HR Round. After the pandemic, Zomato has started hiring through referral only.

    Who owns Zomato?

    Founder and CEO, Deepinder Goyal owns Zomato.

    How does Zomato recruit?

    Zomato has started hiring via referrals after the pandemic to ensure they get the right people.

  • Common Mistakes to Avoid while Creating Advertising Campaigns (With Examples)

    Ad Campaigns are a great way to communicate with your consumers and spread a positive message about your brand. But not all ad campaigns are successful you need to make sure you convey the right message. If you are planning to create an ad campaign here are few mistakes you should avoid.

    An ad campaign can do wonders if the idea is well executed.

    What is an Ad Campaign?
    Why are Ad Campaigns created?
    Mistakes to avoid while creating an Ad Campaign
    Example of Failed Ad Campaigns
    FAQ

    What is an Ad Campaign?

    An Ad Campaign is generally made to send across a message revolving around a constant theme. These campaigns have a specified duration following questions like:

    • When will it air? And for how long?
    • Is it supposed to be a television commercial?

    The campaigns are tweaked a little accordingly to fit the mediums that are being used. These campaigns are not limited to only a single medium. Mediums like social media, hoardings, newspapers, emails, etc. Can be used, a campaign could also be a series.

    Why are Ad Campaigns created?

    • To inform the audience about a new/existing product or a brand in the market.
    • To stay connected to the audience.
    • To communicate a message or bring awareness among the consumers about a certain thing.

    The mediums are chosen based on the objective and the message that a brand is trying to communicate. For example, your brand might have completed 75 years since it was established. So, to celebrate/inform the consumers about it, you create a campaign that delivers the message.


    Mistakes Done By Entrepreneurs Which New Entrepreneurs Need To Avoid
    There are some common and avoidable start-up mistakes which entrepreneurs do. So, let us see the tips on business mistakes to avoid or startup mistakes to avoid.


    Mistakes to avoid while creating an Ad Campaign

    Stick to the Time

    Media scheduling is important, but along with considering your current theme and the current situation. As the tweets came from Zomato on Twitter, that clarified that the ad campaign that was made back six months ago is bizarre.


    Make the Plan Flexible

    Zomato did not consider for once that once its TVC (television commercial) series would be out, how would people react? All the damage could have been avoided if simply they had a backup plan or would have bent their idea around something else.

    Considering the audience was already engaged in a conversation around the treatment of the delivery workers of Zomato and other food delivery apps on various social media platforms.

    Encoding and Decoding of the message

    We often forget this, especially when we are making ad campaigns these days. Your brand needs to be super careful. Back in the days when ad campaigns were created, people would maybe talk about it. But now with social media platforms, the audience has the power to give feedback. Communication is a two-way process.

    While there are anonymous handles emerging on social media. Not wanting to reveal their identity but to bring attention to the issue of long work hours and low wages. Bringing it to the notice of how the food delivery staff is being treated.

    Be your own critic, revaluate, learn, and do better

    You should consider a small test marketing exercise before releasing your ad campaigns. Evaluate the campaign with your team, gather data, and analyze it.

    Another part of it came when people also pointed out the money that might have gone into the creation of the Ad campaign. Rather than addressing the real problem here and looking for a solution.

    Study the behavior of your audience:

    • How did they take it?
    • Was the message clear?
    • Does the campaign work?
    • Do you need some changes?
    • Is research needed?
    • Can you improve?
    • Is there more that you can do?
    • Is there space to grow?

    See if it could be misinterpreted? Or could send out a wrong message to the audience.

    Remember, marketing plans should always be flexible as the only constant in society is change. One is dealing with human emotions, competing with other markets, trying to stay on top, and when so much is happening mistakes are often made.

    Example of Failed Ad Campaigns

    Zomato’s ‘Har Customer Hai Star’ recent Ad Campaign

    Recently, Zomato’s Ad campaign series with stars like Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif were aired and have received backlash from the masses on social media. The campaign ‘Har Customer Hai Star’ glorifies the delivery boys. With the situation being the delivery personnel delivering his order despite the bad weather in case of Hrithik Roshan. Hrithik addresses him as jadoo and requests for a selfie saying “Ek selfie to banti hai”

    But the personnel leaves anyway, happily without taking the selfie, in the rain, where we later discover the notification that he receives is for another order. With the voice-over following the lines:

    “Hrithik Roshan ho ya aap, apne liye har customer hai star”

    In the case of Katrina Kaif, when the delivery staff gets her the parcel, she asks him to wait while she brings him a piece of her birthday cake. There is the sound of a bell with the notification of another food order that he has to deliver. And the delivery guy goes on outing his duty first, without the cake.

    The one mistake that Zomato made was the mistake of not keeping up with the opinion of the public. And was blamed for diverting the conversation that was going on around social media.

    Remember when Facebook’s rating dropped from 4.0 to 2.6?

    Facebook rating dropped to 2.4
    Facebook rating dropped to 2.4

    This happened on Play Store and it happened quickly as Facebook, the famous social media app, kept flagging and deleting posts, censoring Palestinian accounts who were protesting Israeli military. Its rating also went down on the Apple Store with thousands of one-stars.


    Common mistakes that Startup Founders make in their business
    Numerous startup founders fail to manage it after the seeding step, as they had utilized their all energy in getting the funding. Let us see the complete story on the topic- Common mistakes that Startup Founders make in their business.


    Here is a quick revision of what you can do:

    • Keep your audience in mind while creating an ad campaign.
    • Remember, you can always do better.
    • Make a clear-cut message when thinking. Ask: what is it that you want to deliver?  
    • Test marketing helps.
    • Do your research. Plan and schedule the campaign based on what is going around right now?
    • The key message should not be miscommunicated.
    • Remote communication is a two-way process.
    • Be sensitive.

    Conclusion

    We are living in the age of the 21st century. People on social media are well informed. The youth today talk about politics, gender equality, feminism, revolution, and care about issues that matter to them. Movements are made in a blink to make sure that change is made for good.

    FAQ

    What should be avoided when creating a marketing campaign?

    Make sure your message is clearly conveyed, Be your own critic and do a test run before releasing your ad.

    What are some marketing mistakes?

    Making assumptions, Ignoring customer complaints, Faking popularity, and Ignoring the emotional drivers of choice are some of the common marketing mistakes.

    What is the impact of advertising?

    An ad campaign can create a positive impact on consumers mind that in turn can influence future behavior.

  • Why are most Indian Startups suddenly going Public in 2021?

    At one point while growing a startup, every startup founder must have dreamed of is applying for an IPO. Who doesn’t wants some extra funding to grow their startup?. The Indian startup industry is growing at a fast pace. And Many startups are buckling up to apply for the IPO. But why now? Why are so many startups going public in 2021?. Let’s find out

    If you are just as curious to know, follow the article

    What is a Startup?
    What is an IPO?
    Following factors you can consider before going Public
    Why are Startups going public in 2021?
    Pros and Cons of Registering for an IPO
    What happened When Zomato went public?
    List of startups that have opted for IPOs in India
    FAQ

    What is a Startup?

    So, you hear this word floating in and out of conversations, much to an extent these days.

    • Startups are usually founded by one or more entrepreneurs and their company is in its initial stages of business.
    • These entrepreneurs involved in building startups believe that there is a demand for a certain product or a service and want to make it better by developing it.
    • The funding for these usually involves getting money from family or friends.
    • Startups need capital, so they are also on a lookout for backers to invest in them.

    What is an IPO?

    IPO stands for Initial Public Offering

    • Companies need capital, so they raise it in the forms of IPO and shares from public investors.
    • People have a point of view that stock prices increase after an IPO.

    Following factors you can consider before going Public

    • There is a buzz in the market about your Startup.
    • The company has been financially strong for the last three years and is making good profits.
    • You hear about your company quite often.
    • The company holds a strong vision.

    We are observing a trend here. Not only Indian tech startups are going public, but almost every startup is getting in the waiting list to go public in 2021.


    How Apple avoided Billions of Dollars of Taxes? | Apple Tax Avoidance Strategy
    Apple being the biggest tech company earns billions of dollars in revenue but it doesn’t pay billions in tax. How? Let’s understand how it avoided taxes.


    Why are Startups going public in 2021?

    Money circulation by Central Banks

    The Central banks are pumping new money into circulation in the hopes of tackling the aftermath the pandemic has left the economy in.

    Where is this cash ending up?

    The way for this money is paved to the path of the financial markets, mainly stocks. Now that means many of the giant institutions have plenty of money floating in so that they can invest in. Which leads us to another question: Where? These institutions now have the power to invest in IPOs.

    Startups like Zomato, Nykaa, PayTM, Delhivery, some of which have already been made public and some that are gearing to go public, have the intuition that they can catch the interest of these investors.

    It is becoming, a regular thing now for public valuations to overtake the private ones. Many people chip in, thinking that what they invest in will see growth in the future. The shares are rapidly growing, so if your startup is waiting to go public. There is no better chance and time than now to grab the opportunity.

    Possibilities of recovery

    The other part of the story is that many say that with stocks going up to the skies. With the investors and the Indian public pooling in money for the vision, your startup holds even if you have landed into the mess of running into loss. There is a chance of new money coming in. And the value of your startup will be much more than you expected.

    Registrations are easier than before thanks to SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India)

    The days of waiting are over and long gone. There are many ways to get listed on the IPO list faster. SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) has made it easy for the startups to list themselves in India, introducing the Innovators Growth Platform, also making changes for them to get listed domestically.

    Delays due to the pandemic

    One of the other reasons is none other than the pandemic itself. It really shook up the world, bringing everything to a halt and slowing down many aspects of our lives. Seeing the stability and growth, the other startups are sure in a hurry to get themselves listed as soon as the pandemic did put a stop to the process. And it would not hurt to take advantage of the situation and accelerate it.

    Pros and Cons of Registering for an IPO

    Pros of registering for an IPO

    1. It helps in fundraising.
    2. Creates credibility and publicity.
    3. Having stocks as a means of payment.
    4. Reduced overall cost of capital.

    Cons of registering as an IPO

    1. There’s market pressure.
    2. Needs additional regulatory requirements.
    3. Potential loss of control.
    4. Transaction costs.

    What happened during the 1991 Financial crisis in India?(Case Study)
    1991 was one of the worst financial crisis of India. Lets revisit it and understand what led to the crisis and how was Indian economy revived.


    What happened When Zomato went public?

    • A big deal was made when Zomato went Public. It sent the internet into a frenzy.
    • The value of Zomato went from $5.4 billion, with the expected value of its stock to hit $7.5 billion.
    • People saw humongous potential in it as it is one of the fastest growing B2B segments in the food market.
    • It was backed by investors like the Ant Group, Info Edge, Ant Financial, Temasek, and more.
    • Tiger Global, Kora, Luxor, Fidelity (FMR), D1 Capital, Baillie Gifford, Mirae, and Stead view joined Zomato’s board.

    Ant Financial gains majority stake in Zomato
    The home-grown foodtech major has signed a definitive agreement with Alibaba-owned digital financial service platform – Alipay Singapore Pte Ltd. to undertake a primary fundraise of around $210 million.


    List of startups that have opted for IPOs in India

    • Zomato
    • BYJU’S
    • Delhivery
    • LIC
    • Policybazaar
    • Freshworks
    • Pepperfry
    • Flipkart
    • Nykaa
    • Bajaj Energy

    FAQ

    Which Indian startups went public in 2021?

    Policy Bazaar, Delhivery, Nykaa, Paytm and Zomato are few startups that went or are preparing to go public in 2021.

    How many unicorns are there in India in 2021?

    There are 53 unicorns in India as of June 2021.

    What is an IPO?

    IPO is a fundraising method where companies list their stocks in public to raise capital from public investors.

  • The Meme Era: How Meme Marketing Is Becoming The New Way To Brand Success?

    Welcome to the internet, Anything that your brain can think of can be found. We’ve got mountains of content and among these zillion ways to engage, A meme is the most recurring.

    So, what is a meme ? – Asked no one ever.

    Everyone knows it, everyone has seen it, Even if you are an anti social media advocate, you know it. Wikipedia says, The term ‘meme’ is a shortening (modeled on gene) of ‘mimeme’, which comes from Ancient Greek, meaning ‘imitated thing’. The word was coined by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena.

    What is a Meme?
    How Memes Changed Marketing?
    Memes in The Exciting Future
    FAQs

    CRED Meme Marketing

    What is a Meme?

    A meme is an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users.

    Needless to mention that we live in a hyper hyper connected world. Yes, I used the word hyper twice, you know why. The medium is high technology penetration and the Internet. Believe it or not, a meme is one of the most shared items among all in the online world. These quirky texted images have high sharing value, that is they are highly contagious and can pierce nicely through the human brain. Now if you have questions like why ? Then my friend, you’re underestimating the power of humor. Humor is the best way to build rapport with fellow sapiens.

    Another interesting thought is that earlier the word ‘Viral’ wasn’t used as much. Also it was used in the context of medical field to identify bacteria or viruses that travel and transmit fast. Can you think of the fastest medium through which a virus can travel to spread ? Air, yes. It is the air-borne bacteria that travel the fastest. From that usage, we have come to a time when anything over the internet can go viral. The reason is hyper connectedness. Anything humorous can go viral. Internet is the new air, truly and metaphorically.

    Graph showing usage of the word ‘Trend’ over last 5 years (Via Google trends)

    How Memes Changed Marketing?

    Marketing is to present a company’s product in the best possible way. It can also be called catching people’s eyeballs. Now in the times when most, If not all the eyeballs are looking at the memes. It would be a smart move to catch memes first. That is exactly what companies are doing, they are placing their name on memes. They are doing marketing by way of memes.

    Modern problems require modern solutions.

    Combination of marketing and memes has led to the establishment of one of the quirkiest ways of marketing, MEME MARKETING. We see that anything weird or funny or weirdly funny can go viral and can turn many eyeballs to themselves. These memes are the new marketing tools because they have high sharing value.

    We can’t move forward in this direction without taking a few examples. The most famous example we can think of is that of Zomato. Their meme game is lit, that’s what millennials are calling. The company recently got public and customers love this brand for its relevant memes that they share on their social handles.

    Zomato Meme | Zomato Instagram Post
    Zomato Meme | Zomato Instagram Post

    This is their latest Instagram post. The subject is about Cristiano Ronaldo’s splendid performance and the underlying subject is zomato delivery boys(wearing red).

    Previously

    They made a tweet in 2019 that went immensely viral. It was liked thousands of times, had several thousands retweets and praised by the CEO Dipinder Goyal himself. It was,

    “Guys, kabhi kabhi ghar ka khana bhi kha lena chahiye”

    (Guys, Sometimes eat home cooked food for a change)

    Witty tweets like these from Zomato have been widely appreciated. This is a funny and smart way to trigger humor in people, communicating what the brand does conveniently to its customers. Thus improving consumer relations. Moreover it led to many responses from other brands as well, who joined the conversation by commenting with some similar slurs.

    Guys, kabhi kabhi raat ke 3 baje, phone side pe rakh ke so jana chahiye – Youtube India.

    Guys, kabhi kabhi cable pe bhi kuch dekh lena chahiye – Amazon Prime Video.

    Guys, kabhi kabhi ghar par bhi baithna chahiye! – Ixigo

    Another example may include the recent unicorn CRED. Cred has been making funny songs as their marketing campaigns. These jingles are so catchy that you might humm them sub consciously. Cred’s success credit goes to its engaging marketing strategy. Create a marketing strategy that engages your audiences and turns them into customers.

    CRED Meme Marketing

    What’s Better – Static Memes For Marketing Or Video Memes For Marketing?
    Memes may be funny, but meme-making is no joke! Memes have become almost a cultural language unique to the millennial crowd. Considering how trendy and in vogue they are, most brands are trying to get in on the meme-making scene. With meme marketing becoming the recent tool in brand promotions,


    Memes in The Exciting Future

    The future of this newly found genre of advertising/marketing is definitely exciting and obviously hilarious. They say that visual memes travel about 60000 times more than a normal plain text. faster than People, especially from Gen Z, love memes because they offer an entertaining analysis of everything. From your childhood trauma to the latest current affairs around the globe.

    And because pop culture is the cousin that marketing hangs out with, the former always influences the latter. Today’s customers go to the brands that make them laugh, that are relatable and bold.

    However there is also a dark side to these memes, They can be offensive. So a brand should cautiously test the waters gently first before jumping in this frenzy. So a meme is something of a relatable joke, That has to have humor. A meme without humor is like a joke that doesn’t make anyone laugh. You may get an A for the effort but if your work doesn’t make the reader go giggle, grin, or onto a relatable smile – you lose, And this happens more than you realise. That is not how you MEME.

    Use memes to trade good humorous exchanges with your customers and captivate them. Who knows—your meme might light up someone’s day!

    FAQs

    What is a meme?

    A meme is an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users.

    What does meme stands for?

    The term ‘meme’ is a shortening (modeled on gene) of ‘mimeme’, which comes from Ancient Greek, meaning ‘imitated thing’.

    What is meme based marketing?

    Meme Marketing is the art of creating any kind of brand narrative in the form of text, image, or video Memes and getting those memes shared on various Social Media platform for getting attention of customers.

  • Story of Zomato COO and CoFounder, Gaurav Gupta from Entry to his Parting

    Gaurav Gupta was the Global Head of the Advertising sales of Zomato and was later promoted to the COO position of the company. After 4 years of exceptional contribution towards his work and leading the launch of a wide range of the services of the business, Gaurav Gupta was again elevated to the rank of the Co-founder of Zomato on March 2, 2019. However, after a brief stint of a little more than 2 years as the Co-founder and COO of Zomato, Gaurav Gupta resigned from the company on September 14, 2021.

    Quite intriguing isn’t it?

    We know you want to know more about Gaurav Gupta, which is why StartupTalky covers the story of Zomato COO and Co-founder, Gaurav Gupta from his entry into the organization to his resignation.

    Gaurav Gupta Biography

    Name Gaurav Gupta
    Nickname GG
    Nationality Indian
    Education Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi
    Profession Sales and Advertising Head, Business Head
    Position Former COO and Co-founder of Zomato
    Co-founder Zomato

    Gaurav Gupta Before He Joined Zomato

    Little is known about Gaurav Gupta’s life before he joined Zomato, but as per his Linkedin profile and a TOI article, Gaurav worked as a consultant at A.T. Kearney for a decade.

    Zomato Success Story – Latest News | History | Founders | Funding
    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified informationon different startups and organizations. The content in this post has beenapproved by the organization it is based on. There were days when we used to call different restaurants to place orders andagain call up for c…

    Gaurav Gupta’s Early Days in Zomato

    Gaurav joined the organization in 2015 and was the Head of the Supply of Zomato. He was the key person, who led the launch of numerous services that the online food ordering platform currently draws revenue from across a bunch of international markets. Furthermore, Gaurav also launched the table reservation business and was also responsible for scaling it up across India, UAE, and Australia.

    Gaurav Gupta not only led the advertising sales of the company globally but also played a significant role in launching Zomato Gold. Gupta played an instrumental role in growing the subscription service of Zomato to one of the fastest-growing of paid membership programs. Furthermore, he had also worked with Zomato’s payments business, registered under Zomato Pay.

    Gaurav was then promoted as the COO of the company and thereby, acted as the head of the operations team.

    Gaurav Gupta eventually moved from the COO role to lead Zomato’s nutrition business. On this Gaurav mentioned via an email saying, “I was anyway not doing this role, and it will be great for all of us if we find someone better than me to do this role,” wrote Gupta.

    Gaurav Gupta Promoted as the COO of Zomato

    In January 2018, at a time when Zomato was seeing a key shuffle in top management roles, he was elevated from his earlier role of the global head for advertising sales to the COO. As the COO, he was given charge of critical operations including content and new initiatives such as their cloud kitchen module, Zomato Infrastructure Services along with sourcing and reviews on the platform.

    Gaurav Gupta as the Co-founder of the Company

    In a move that Zomato’s Co-Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal stated as ‘empowerment for the right person’, the company’s 38-year-old Chief Operating Officer (COO), Gaurav Gupta was given the title of co-founder. The announcement, which comes as a surprise to many, was made by the company’s CEO Goyal in an internal mail on the 1st of March, 2019. Zomato confirmed the development but declined to share further details.

    Deepinder Goyal stated in the mail saying,

    This is not a ‘reward’- this is empowerment, for the right person, to seamlessly be able to level-up to a role which he has shown the potential for.” He further mentioned that along with the new title of co-founder, Gupta’s role and title as the COO would still be maintained.

    The company then decided to elevate Gaurav Gupta’s position to that of the Co-founder of the company in March 2019.

    As part of the employee empowerment policy of Zomato, the company embraced Gaurav Gupta as one of its co-founders.

    “We are going to call GG ‘co-founder and COO’, in addition to his COO role,” said the Co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal via an email to its employees.

    His services were looked up to by everyone in Zomato and he was even singularly praised by CEO Goyal on a couple of occasions due to the success that Zomato is enjoying through numerous add-ons to its primary food delivery business. These include Zomato Gold, the subscription service of Zomato; Hyperpure (through which Zomato supplies fruits, vegetables, and meat to restaurants); the events unit of the company, Zomaland, and more.

    Why is being a Co-founder prestigious and rare in the Startup Ecosystem?

    It is one of the rare moments in the startup ecosystem when a company rewards its experienced and executive by conferring them the title of a founding partner. However, it happened with Zomato and Gaurav Gupta.

    The ride aggregating giant, OLA is another Indian startup company that encourages its employees in a similar fashion. Pranay Jivrajka, an early employee of Ola had also been given the title of a founding partner in 2017, where a similar thing happened. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ola Foods and a Co-founder of Ola has already taken an exit from the firm in the wake of 2021.

    The Exit of Gaurav Gupta

    Gaurav Gupta finds his way to exit on September 14, 2021, after two years since his promotion to the position of a Co-founder. The resignation of Gaurav Gupta comes a little more than a year after Pankaj Chaddah had quit the company in March 2020. Pankaj Chaddah co-founded Zomato with Deepinder Goyal in 2008 and had been extensively known as the face of the brand for over a decade.

    Zomato has already drawn a conclusion to some of its business lines and subsidiaries, including its grocery delivery service, nutrition and nutraceuticals, along with some of its international subsidiaries.

    Gaurav Gupta had sent a heartfelt email on his parting to every one of Zomato where he addressed Zomato Co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal via a special mention. Deepinder also replied to Gaurav promptly in the same email bidding his Co-founder a fitting farewell.

    Furthermore, Deepinder also took to Twitter to announce the exit of his co-founder and thanked him for the amazing journey of six long years that they spent together. Here goes his Tweet:


    On his resignation, Gaurav Gupta has said that this will be a new turn in his life, and he will be starting a new chapter after he leaves Zomato.

    Zomato and the Resignation of its COOs

    Gaurav Gupta is not the only COO of Zomato who resigned from the company, nor is he the first of its top-level resignations. Zomato seems to have seen a couple of other resignations too of people working in similar designations.

    Pankaj Chaddah was another Zomato personality who donned several hats, among which it is crucial to mention that he was also strikingly the COO of the firm. Deepak Gulati, who had joined Zomato as the President and the Chief Operating Officer of the company had also resigned in September 2017, within six months.

    Conclusion

    Resignations and struggles are part of every organization and Zomato is not an exception but the ground it gives to its employees to grow as an individual and as a team player is laudable indeed. Zomato is backed by investors like Chinese payment giants Ant Financial (payment affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba), venture capital firm Sequoia and Naukri-owner Info Edge with a valuation of over $2 billion. However, with the competition from companies like Swiggy and a never-ending demand for better service, only time will tell how this move will affect in helping Zomato stay ahead of its competitors.

    The Unpredictable Acquisition of Online Food Delivery
    “Some battles are better left with honour rather than victory.” 21st January 2020, saw a sweeping acquisition [https://startuptalky.com/tag/acquisition/] which can deftly be called megalithic. Uber Technologies Inc.’s made thedecision to retreat from its food delivery business[https://startuptalky.com/tag/business/…

    FAQ’s

    Who is Gaurav Gupta?

    Gaurav Gupta is the co-founder of Zomato who was elevated to the role of Co-founder from COO and eventually resigned from the organization on September 14, 2021.

    When he joined Zomato?

    Gaurav Gupta joined Zomato in 2015 and was working as a global head for advertising sales for Zomato.

    What’s his current role in Zomato?

    Gaurav Gupta is currently leading Zomato’s nutrition business.

    Who is the founder of Zomato?

    Pankaj Chaddah and Deepinder Goyal are the founders of Zomato. Zomato was founded in July 2008.

    Who are the co-founders of Zomato at present?

    Zomato has four cofounders— Deepinder Goyal, Gunjan Patidar, Gaurav Gupta, Akriti Chopra, and Mohit Gupta.

  • How did Uber make a Billion Dollars from Zomato Listing? – Case Study

    We are past the worst recession since the Indian independence in 1947, which was due to the COVID-19 onslaught. Though the dreadful pandemic hasn’t taken its exit yet from the country, the Indian market has started to boom with the listing of the shares from a bunch of companies, which certainly looks promising enough!

    Zomato, India’s food delivery giant, has already launched its IPO on July 23, 2021, and that too with flying colors. Though the company exhibited a mammoth size of IPO at Rs 9,375 crores, the overall subscription of 38x was quite healthy. At the end of day 1, Zomato witnessed a 66% premium at Rs 125.85.

    Zomato, with its successful IPO listing, has certainly been the talk of the town but one another company has parallelly been mentioned if not more. This is Uber, which seems to have largely benefitted with this listing of Zomato, and what is stranger is the fact that it hasn’t spent a single penny in the food aggregator business!

    Uber’s Gain out of the Zomato IPO
    How did Uber become the gainer in Zomato IPO?
    Looking Back at the Uber Eats Deal of Zomato
    Who else gained in Zomato IPO?
    FAQ

    Uber’s Gain out of the Zomato IPO

    As soon as the Zomato listing closed for the day on July 23, 2021, people began talking about the sudden surge of the market value of Uber stakes. Yes, the market value of the stakes Uber has in Zomato, at the end of the day, was announced at Rs 9,000 crores ($1.2 billion). This baffled many, and even more so, when they heard that Uber didn’t spend a penny for such a fortune it made out of the Zomato IPO.

    How did Uber become the gainer in Zomato IPO?

    The recent gain of Uber may sound like the company has not spent anything to gain a considerable large sum and in reality, it is so. However, we need to recall that Uber has had its 9.19% shares in Zomato due to the latter’s acquisition of Uber Eats, which Zomato acquired back in 2020 at $206 million.

    Along with making over a billion dollars in Zomato’s IPO, Uber also resigned from Uber Eats last year, which was on the verge of being a liability. Therefore, it was truly a win-win decision for Uber!

    Looking Back at the Uber Eats Deal of Zomato

    Launched in August 2014, Uber Eats started as a food delivery platform, which displayed menus from all the restaurants that were partnered with the app and helped the users order their favorite dishes, much like what we do in Zomato and Swiggy.

    However, soon after the launch, Uber Eats started to pick up huge losses. The losses for the company started to pile up even more after the Covid-induced lockdown was announced. Furthermore, the losses of Uber Eats were tied to the overall losses that the cab aggregator was seeing, especially when more than half the world was observing lockdown.

    During this time, the subsidiary of Uber had to resort to stringent measures like pay cuts and laying off employees. Uber Eats trimmed down its employee strength by 30% in hope that it would help the company get some gear, but when it failed, Uber thought of selling off its food delivery subsidiary.

    It was on January 21, 2020, that the Indian division of Uber Eats was finally sold to none other than the food delivery giant, Zomato, in return for 9.99% stakes in Zomato, which was valued at around $180 million back then.

    Who knew that this deal would be so profitable the next year itself?

    According to Uber, the “fair value of the consideration” that it received for the Indian business of Uber Eats was $206 million, which included $35 million of “reimbursement of goods and services tax receivable from Zomato.”


    Why Papa Johns Failed to set its foot in India | Papa Johns Case Study
    Papa Johns, the infamous pizza restaurant in America. Papa Johns tried to set its foot in India too but failed in many aspects. Lets understand Why Papa John’s failed in India.


    Who else gained in Zomato IPO?

    Along with Zomato and Uber, the IPO was also a huge benefit for Info Edge, whose stocks saw a healthy rise in price and are currently worth Rs 15,000 crores. Deepinder Goyal, Zomato cofounder’s holdings, which were valued at 2,800 crores also witnessed a rise to Rs 5,500 crores.

    Overall, it can be said that Zomato made a robust debut on the stock exchanges on Friday, July 23. The shares of the company started at ₹116 on the national stock exchange (NSE) and represented more than a 51% premium over the issue price of ₹76. Only 16 minutes past its listing, at 10.16 a.m., the market cap of Zomato breached ₹1 lakh crore. An amazing feat indeed!

    Stocks of Zomato
    Stocks of Zomato

    Conclusion

    Launched in 2008, Zomato was one of the startups that have truly emerged strong, standing as the biggest food delivery services in India, ahead of its arch-rivals, Swiggy, have amassed the strength of the years and is pacing towards a brighter future.

    On such a successful first-day run of Zomato, the co-founder and CEO, Deepinder stated, “We are going to relentlessly focus on 10 years out and beyond, and are not going to alter our course for short-term profits at the cost of the long-term success of the company.”

    FAQ

    Is Uber Eats owned by Zomato?

    Yes, Uber sold its India business of Uber Eats to Zomato for a 9.99% stake.

    When did Zomato acquire Uber?

    Zomato acquired Uber Eats on 21st January, 2020.

    Why did Uber Eats left India?

    Uber Eats decided to quit its operation in India, to cut its global losses as it was fallen behind to keep up with the competition.

  • Why Zomato and Swiggy are accused of Anti Competitive practices?

    The Restaurants around the country have been complaining about the monopoly that is created by the Food aggregators Swiggy and Zomato. Zomato has been getting ready for their IPO launch and this could create a potential threat to their listing or even can affect their stock prices after the listing. However, in this article let’s look at why the food aggregators are accused of anti-competitive prices.

    Food delivery Platforms – Latest News
    The main reason Why Restaurants are complaining against Food delivery platforms
    What are the Problems faced by Restaurants?
    Response from the Food Aggregators
    The possible outcomes
    FAQ

    Food delivery Platforms – Latest News

    The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) has approached the regulator for competition in India with regards to Swiggy and Zomato. The Restaurant Association has accused the food delivery startups of anti competitive prices in the industry.

    The restaurant association had approached the CCI (Competition Commission of India) as the restaurants in the country were affected due to the competitive prices charged by the food delivery startups in the country.

    The restaurants were forced to rely on these startups in order to run their businesses as lockdowns were implemented in different places in the country. They have also filed a case against the startups on 1 July 2021 and added that they have an adverse effect on the competition in the restaurant industry.

    The main reason Why Restaurants are complaining against Food delivery platforms

    The association has conveyed that the restaurants have been complaining against the food delivery startups in regards to the massive discounts that the startups provide to customers which in turn are affecting the business of the restaurants. There has been a conflict between the restaurants and the food aggregators regarding this.

    The association has stated that the food delivery startup companies are trying to create a monopoly in the industry and have been charging commissions from the restaurants. The restaurants have also stated that the food aggregators are not providing them with the data of the customers.

    Anurag Katriar who is the president of NRAI has stated that they have been in constant communication with the food aggregators for the past 15-18 months in order to find a solution to the problems faced in the industry. However, they were not able to come to a solution regarding the problems despite all their efforts with the food aggregators.


    Why Papa Johns Failed to set its foot in India | Papa Johns Case Study
    Papa Johns, the infamous pizza restaurant in America. Papa Johns tried to set its foot in India too but failed in many aspects. Lets understand Why Papa John’s failed in India.


    What are the Problems faced by Restaurants?

    The restaurants have been reporting certain problems that they are facing with the startups since 2018 and some of the major accusations made by the restaurants association in India are providing discounts.

    The association has stated that the food delivery startups have been forcing the restaurants in order to provide discounts in order to let them stay listed on their mobile applications, the startups have been hiding the customer details from the restaurants and are collecting the preferences and the data of the customers and storing it for their personal use.

    The food aggregators have forced the restaurants to use their delivery services in order to complete the order and they are forced to pay huge commissions in order to maintain their listing on the mobile applications.

    Response from the Food Aggregators

    The Food aggregators Zomato and Swiggy have not officially provided any comments regarding the concern that is taken by the restaurant association towards the competition regulator. However, the association has stated that they had been constantly communicating with the startups for the past 15 – 18 months in order to find a solution.

    The association has also conveyed that the efforts taken by them have failed and the startups have not cooperated in resolving the issue and that is one of the major reasons for them to approach the CCI.

    In the earlier studies conducted by the CCI, the food aggregators have conveyed that in regards to masking the data of the customers is done as they are maintaining the privacy of the customers and would not want the data to be leaked outside. The aggregators had also stated that the details are used to provide better and quality services to the customers.

    The possible outcomes

    The next step can be that the CCI may take the case up and investigate further into the concern that is mentioned by the National Restaurant Association of India or maybe even not take it into consideration as a research was conducted into it previously.

    The NRAI has stated that they are working towards developing a mobile application in order to resolve the issue that is faced by the restaurants. They are working towards developing their own food aggregator app which would avoid all the problems faced by the restaurants.

    The association has conveyed that the mobile app is under development and would be ready to launch in the next two months and added that the back-end team is working towards the development of the mobile application.


    Why are People Excited for Zomato IPO When it’s in Loss?
    As Zomato has recently filed for an IPO, there is excitement in the market even though its a loss making company


    Conclusion

    However, whatever steps that are taken by the CCI or the NRAI the end customers and the consumers would be affected. The customers will have to pay a higher price and would not be able to enjoy the discounts that are offered by the current food aggregators and they will have to face poor delivery services as well or even pay huge amounts for the delivery of their food.

    FAQ

    What is a food delivery aggregator?

    The food delivery aggregators offer access to multiple restaurants through a single online portal and they collect a fixed commission of the order, which is paid by the restaurant.

    How much commission does Zomato charge from restaurants?

    Swiggy and Zomato obtain 22-25 percent on order value from their restaurant partners.

  • Why are people excited for Zomato IPO when it’s in loss?

    The Initial Public Offering of Zomato is the much awaited IPO of 2021. It is considered to be one of the largest IPO’s of 2021. The company on 28 April 2021 has finally filed the draft papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Let’s look at why there is so much excitement in the market for the issue of Zomato’s shares even though they are a loss making company.

    Zomato IPO
    Losses of Zomato
    Zomato Warns losses to continue
    Bad Cash Flows
    IIFL Securities
    Motilal Oswal Financial Services
    Kotak AMC
    FAQ

    Zomato IPO

    Zomato has been one of the biggest successful startups in India in the last decade along with Flipkart, Byju’s and its rival startup Swiggy. The Initial Public Offering of Zomato is expected to increase the value of the company.

    The dealers in the unofficial or grey market who trades in unlisted shares said that the valuation of the company could be around INR 53,000 crores. The expected valuation of Zomato will make it larger than one-third of the companies that are listed on the index of Nifty 50.

    On July 8, 2021, Zomato is one week away from launching its debut IPO. The company has already filed its red herring prospectus with the Bombay Stock Exchange, and in the same, Zomato has also revealed some much-awaited details of its upcoming IPO.

    According to the prospectus, the shares that Zomato would offer would be priced between Rs 72-76 each, which would make the whole issue worth between Rs 9,357 – 11,198 crores. The food delivery giant would issue its shares for a period between July 14 – 16, 2021. Furthermore, as per the reports, there will be a total of 1,30,20,83,333 equity shares of face value Re 1 each on offer for bids.

    Zomato had initially disclosed that the total amount of its IPO would be Rs 7,500 crores last month. However, the company eventually had to increase the total size of the issue due to rising demands from the investors. The portion of the IPO, as offered to the retail investors, has been limited to 10% of the total size of the issue. This is because the brand has not achieved profitability yet.

    Losses of Zomato

    The difference between Zomato and the other companies listed on the Nifty50 index is that they are profit making companies for several years or at least from the last decade. Whereas Zomato is recording losses continuously for the past 4 years.

    For the last nine month period which ended in December 2020, the company has reported a net loss of INR 682 crores and INR 2,385 crores for the year 2019-2020, INR 1,010 crores for the year 2018-19 and INR 107 crore for the year 2017-18.

    In the draft red herring prospectus, which was submitted to the Securities and Exchange Board of India the company has mentioned that they have a history of net losses and are expecting an increase in the expenses in the future.

    Prior to the launch of its debut IPO, Zomato is spending Rs 1.3 to earn a single rupee of operating revenue in FY21, which has improved from Rs 1.92 that the company had to spend in FY20.

    Furthermore, the company has also witnessed an improvement of around 66% in terms of the total losses. Zomato suffered an annual loss of Rs 2385.6 crore in FY20, which came down to be Rs 816.4 crore in FY21. The company, which is going live with its IPO next week, still has outstanding losses worth Rs 5,600.3 crore at the end of FY21  


    Food-Tech Startups In India | Best Indian Food-Tech Startups [2021]]
    India has a humongous food industry, the sixth largest in the world. Retailstartups account for about 70% of the total sales in this segment. According toreports, the food and retail market will be worth $ 828.92 billion by 2020. Thefood-tech industry is growing rapidly with the emergence and dev…


    Zomato Warns losses to continue

    Zomato has warned the investors that the company expects the expenses to increase in the future and their losses to continue for a period of time. The company said that from the significant investments it would require some time to grow the business.

    The company has plans to pump in a lot of money into the marketing, advertising and promotion. They also have plans to expand its services to new markets in India and develop its platform in addition to expanding its delivery partner network.

    The company said that these efforts would be costlier than they expect and added on saying that it may not result in the increase in revenue or growth of the business. The company said that the increase in revenue and the investments received will be spent on other expenses. This would prevent the company from increasing or maintaining its profitability at a consistent level or a positive cash flow.

    Zomato Revenue Growth
    Zomato Revenue Growth

    Bad Cash Flows

    Zomato has not just struggled in generating profit but has a bad track record of generating cash flows from its operations. The cash outflow of Zomato from operations is INR 269 crore in the year ended in December 2020.

    The company has reported negative cash flow in the past 3 financial years. Most of the negative cash flows are due to the high promotion and advertising expenses of the company to attract new customers to scale up their operations on the platform.


    How Did Zomato Survive the Pandemic—An In-Depth Case Study
    Life, as we know, ended with the advent of 2020. It ushered in a new and scaryera by introducing us to COVID-19 [https://startuptalky.com/tag/covid-19/]. This puzzleremains unsolved even after toils by the best minds in the world. We now talkabout life before and after the pandemic. Nothing rema…


    IIFL Securities

    The brokerage firm IIFL Securities said in a report that it expects Zomato to earn an operating profit in the current financial year due to the increase in the demand of delivery business because of the coronavirus pandemic.

    IIFL securities have an expectation that Zomato will increase its net revenues at a growth of 48 % on a yearly basis for the next 5 years. They expect the fixed costs to grow at a rate of 27 % on a yearly basis which would provide an improvement in the operating margin for the next decade.

    Motilal Oswal Financial Services

    Raamdeo Agarwal who is the chairman and co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services has said that by giving valuations one wouldn’t look for what the company has earned in the past 5 years but will be looking at what the company will earn in the next 25 years.

    Kotak AMC

    Anshul Saigal who is the head of portfolio management services at Kotak AMC has said that it is confusing for investors, but he wants the investors to ask themselves a question before investing that is if the company stopped growing today will its business model earn profits. He added that the answer to this question is the heart of valuing a tech company.


    How Swiggy is Transforming Delivery Service with the help of AI
    Swiggy was founded in the year 2014. It is currently India’s largest deliveryand online food ordering platform. It is operating in 100 different cities inthe country. Swiggy has been using AI to improve its orders and delivery. Let’slook at the steps taken by the company to use AI for the smooth …


    FAQ

    Is Zomato listed in stock market?

    Zomato is planning to go public in 2021.

    Who is the CEO of Zomato?

    Deepinder Goyal is the CEO of Zomato.

    Is Zomato an Indian company?

    Zomato, is one of India’s largest food delivery company.

    Conclusion

    Zomato’s IPO will be more like a leap of faith for the Indian investors. The traditional way of valuing a business cannot be used by the Indian investors when it comes to valuing a business model like Zomato.

  • Saurabh Kumar – Why is Grofers cofounder leaving the company?

    Saurabh Kumar who is the co-founder of the online grocery e-commerce platform Grofers has announced that he would be leaving from the company. In this article the let’s look at the reason, Why Saurabh Kumar is leaving the company.

    Grofers Cofounder – Latest News
    Saurabh Kumar on stepping away from Grofers
    Reason Saurabh Kumar is stepping away from Grofers
    Albinder Dhindsa’s words
    Future plans of Grofers
    FAQ

    Grofers Cofounder – Latest News

    The company was found almost 8 years back and Saurabh Kumar has been serving the company since then. He had conveyed it through an email that he had sent his employees.

    He had conveyed to his employees that he will no longer continue in the company’s day to day functions but added that he would continue to be the shareholder and a board member of the company.

    Saurabh Kumar on stepping away from Grofers

    In the email sent to his employees, Saurabh Kumar had conveyed that when I look back into the past 8 years and consider what we have achieved I feel proud and said that they should also feel the same. He added that the company has gone through a lot of ups and downs and said that we have faced them together and have always come out of it together and stronger.

    He added that all these were possible because of the hard work and sacrifices of the employees and said that whenever they had their backs to the wall, the support and strength of the employees had given him the courage and added that he doesn’t know a life outside Grofers.

    Reason Saurabh Kumar is stepping away from Grofers

    Saurabh Kumar had conveyed in the email that most of his learning and growth had happened in the company and added that he has been reflecting on his life and personal ambitions for a while. He conveyed that he wanted to wander again and the reason for stepping away from the position is considered to be the outcome of it.

    He had also conveyed that he was looking forward to building something fun and exciting and conveyed that some things are cooking. He added that it would take some time and we will have to wait for it to take shape.

    Albinder Dhindsa had conveyed that Kumar had been wanting to invest in his own personal evolution over the past 6 months. He also added that driving deeper had convinced him that there is another area where he could have a huge impact and that he could build it from scratch.

    Albinder Dhindsa on Saurabh Kumar Stepping away

    The co-founder and Chief Executive officer Albinder Dhindsa have conveyed that the exit of Saurabh Kumar from the firm is an end of an era for Grofers. He added that Kumar was an incredibly humble and grounded and had always reminded him of how fortunate and lucky he was to have built Grofers with him in a zone of no ego and no second guessing.

    He added that Kumar is not only a co-founder but also a friend, support system, a brother and a family to him. He added that he was fully supportive of his decision and wherever that would lead him in his journey.

    Retail sales of Grofers
    Retail sales of Grofers

    Future plans of Grofers

    The exit of the co-founder from the company is when the e-grocer is close to having closing an investment deal with Zomato which is estimated to be around USD 100 million. The investment is considered to be part of a large financial round and is expected to value the online grocery firm at around USD 1 billion.

    Grofers were in plans to list the company on the tech index Nasdaq but now the company has been said to have cancelled the plans of IPO and has decided to remain private. The move is considered to have come at a time where there is a huge competition and an increased demand in the market.

    Conclusion

    Saurabh Kumar still holds around 3.5 % in the firm and will still remain as one of the directors of the firm. He will not be part of the day to day activities of the company but will remain to be the shareholder and a member of the board of directors of the company.

    FAQ

    Who invested in Grofers?

    Zomato is in funding talks with Grofers to invest around USD 100 million.

    When was Grofers founded?

    Gofers was founded in 2014 by Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar.

    How do Grofers make money?

    Grofers generates revenue through merchants. They charge a small percentage for every sale they get for them.