Swiggy launches POP, offers meals in the range of Rs 99- Rs 200

The food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy has launched a new service called Swiggy POP targeted at young professionals across seven cities in India. As part of this new service, the company offers a curated menu of single-serve meals in the range of Rs 99- 200 from neighborhood restaurants.

The menu includes items like Indian thalis, bowl meals, Biryanis, Burgers and Asian combos. For Swiggy POP, the company has already tied up with likes of Hotel Sarvana Bhavan (Chennai), Paradise Biriyani (Hyderabad), Rolls Mania (Pune), Dum Matka (Mumbai), Pista House (Hyderabad) and A2B Veg (Chennai) as well as national chains Subway, Rajdhani, Burger King and Taco Bell amongst others.

The company said in a statement that the price of the meal on the menu is what consumers pay during checkout, including zero delivery charges. POP is currently present in Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Pune, with Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata.

“POP was conceptualized keeping in mind the time-pressed working professionals who do not have access to a kitchen and need a hassle-free and foolproof fix to their daily meals,” said Anuj Rathi- VP, Product, Swiggy.

Food ordering space

Founded in 2014, Swiggy has about 35,000 restaurants partners across 14 cities in India. However the competition in online food order space is getting fierce with players such as Zomato, UberEats, and now Ola (after FoodPanda’s aquisition) has entered the space.

UberEats: Uber recently said that within a year of operations starting from Mumbai in May 2017, Uber Eats has listings from 12,000 restaurants with at least 40 new restaurants being added daily. UberEats which is now available in 13 cities in India is apparently experiencing nearly 50% month-on-month growth, and the number of orders has doubled in the last 3 months. The company said that it will expand the offering in tier 2 markets in the coming month.

Zomato: Food tech major Zomato recently said that in FY18, food ordering brought in nearly 30% of Zomato’s revenue, with the share increasing from close to 18% in FY17. In March 2018, food delivery in India grew by 48% in terms of order volume over the previous month and revenue-wise by 55%. Its food ordering service is functional in 15 Indian cities and 5 cities in the Middle East. In terms of usage, the company said it had nearly 5.5 million monthly food orders in March 2018. In February, Zomato raised $150 million from Alibaba’s Ant Financial.

Ola: In December, Ola bought Foodpanda India from its Germany-based parent Delivery Hero Group and said they that will invest $200 million in the food delivery business. Foodpanda India claims to have around 15,000 restaurant partners across 100 cities in India.

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