Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal refutes Reddit post on losing market share

Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal has rejected an anonymous Reddit post alleging that things were "going off the rails" with the company, rebranded as Eternal, losing market share to Zepto Cafe and Swiggy and forcing employees to order from its food delivery platform.

The post also claimed that the work culture has become "laughably inconsistent" with "toxicity" baked in, and the only thing keeping the company profitable now is platform fees, and the "crisis" compounded by "underpaid and overworked" delivery partners.

In a post on X on Saturday, Goyal said, "All of this - reddit.com/r/StartUpIndia' - is utter nonsense. Neither are we losing market share, nor will we ever force our employees to order on Zomato. Freedom of choice is something we stand for vehemently."  He further said "it is embarrassing to even clarify this -- but doing it since many people reached out to me with concern. And thanks everybody for your concern.. appreciate it".

The Reddit post had alleged that "in a recent internal huddle, leadership admitted we're losing a good chunk of the market share to Zepto Cafe and Swiggy. The reaction? Panic and ridiculous new rules. One of them: employees must order from Zomato at least seven times a month and yes, they'll track it. Ordering from competitors is outright banned in the office".

It claimed that on Monday, Rakesh Ranjan, the CEO of Zomato's food delivery business is on Slack doing a townhall, telling everyone to "stay focused" and "get back on track." By Wednesday, he's removed from the role.

"You seriously can't make this stuff up. No clear direction, just a game of musical chairs in leadership and everyone's shitting their pants not knowing what will happen next," the post stated.

"The only thing keeping the company profitable now is platform fees unbelievably. Internally, no one seems to care about long-term sustainability, just numbers. One of the biggest crises right now is the delivery partners. They are being underpaid and overworked. Compared to competition who Zomato pays significantly less and sometimes nearly half. As a result, many riders are quitting or switching platforms," the post said. 

It further claimed that Zomato might still look shiny from the outside but inside, "it's falling apart".

Eternal, formerly Zomato, on Thursday clarified that its food delivery CEO Rakesh Ranjan has not resigned and that any reshuffling of the leadership team at the company is a standard practice as part of its efforts to optimise organisational effectiveness.

The clarification through a regulatory filing came in response to a media report on the stepping down of Ranjan.

"We would like to clarify as on date, there has been no resignation tendered by Rakesh Ranjan and he still continues to be part of the leadership team. At Eternal Group, internal reshuffling of the leadership team is considered a standard practice as part of the company's ongoing efforts to optimise organisational effectiveness," Eternal said.

Earlier this month, the food and grocery delivery platform officially changed its name to 'Eternal Ltd' on the stock exchanges following approval from Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

The brand name of the company's food delivery business, Zomato remains the same, along with the app.