As a part of our #Outlook14 series, we asked heads of online food listing & delivery companies – JustEat, Zomato, FoodPanda, Times City and DeliveryChef about their focus areas for 2014, and the challenges that the online food listing & delivery ecosystem needs to address. MediaNama: Which according to you were the top developments and roadblocks with respect to the food listing/delivery segment in 2013? Why? Ritesh Dwivedy, JustEat.in - Increase in awareness about the potential of internet among restaurateurs. - The funding in last couple of years in chain restaurants like Mast Kalandar, Kaati Zone and Wangs Kitchen have made them invest in technology to address their marketing or operational challenges. - This has had a rub off impact on restaurants in unorganized sector and they have started looking at us as technology enabler helping to smooth the home delivery part of business. - One of the main challenges is maintaining the menu prices updated. This is unlike a listing site which can get away with older menus. - With the petrol/diesel price hikes and food inflation shooting up, restaurants have revised the prices much more frequently this year than previous years. Aditi Kapur, DeliveryChef - 2013 saw an influx of new restaurants, many in the QSR format with lots of choice and competitive pricing. Deepinder Goyal, Zomato - With the Indian population’s growing fascination with smart phones, the food listing and delivery segment has grown immensely. - The last couple of years have seen a significant rise of…
