Zomato enters the Philippines, to compete head-on with Foodpanda

Zomato's entry follows that of Foodpanda and the rivalry between the two will only heat up more, reports Tech in Asia

India’s Zomato has set foot in Manila. The company just announced the launch of its online ordering service in the Philippines, its fourth market since it brought the service out of India this year.

But like most companies expanding to new territories, Zomato isn’t building its service from scratch. It tapped Quick Delivery, one of the Philippines’ largest delivery and takeout services, as a partner.
 

Quick Delivery has exclusive tie-ups with over 1,300 restaurants, giving Zomato a leg-up.
 

“We believe strongly in the leadership of Quick Delivery and what they’ve built and achieved,” says Tanmay Saksena, Zomato’s global business head for online ordering.
 

Zomato’s entry follows that of Rocket Internet’s Foodpanda and only means one thing: the rivalry between the two will heat up more.
 

In the past couple of years, Zomato has expanded to include complimentary services – it acquired US-based NexTable to get into restaurant reservations in April.
 

In May, it began offering online ordering to 14 cities in its home market India. It has since moved to Dubai, Melbourne, Johannesburg, and now Manila.
 

Foodpanda is not taking the whole thing sitting down. While Zomato was diving into online ordering in India, Foodpanda was consolidating its position in the country with the acquisition of platforms JustEat and TastyKhana. It has also gobbled up competitors in Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia, bringing its restaurant partners to more than 45,000 in 40 countries.
 

 

While Zomato still leads the food space with tie-ups with over 1.4 million restaurants across 23 countries on its search app, Foodpanda is racing ahead in online ordering.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.