India’s leading food delivery platforms Zomato, Swiggy and magicpin reported record-breaking orders on New Year’s Eve, despite a nationwide strike call by a section of gig workers. Companies said operations remained smooth with lakhs of delivery partners fulfilling millions of orders.
How Zomato and Swiggy Beat Strike Impact to Record New Year Sales
New Delhi: On New Year's Eve, the country's leading food delivery platforms, Zomato, Swiggy, and magicpin, recorded record-breaking orders. Significantly, operations remained virtually unaffected despite a nationwide strike called by a section of gig workers demanding better wages and working conditions.
Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal stated on the social media platform X that Zomato and Blinkit delivered at a record pace. He stated that over 4.5 lakh delivery partners together delivered over 7.5 million orders (an all-time high) to over 6.3 million customers. With the cooperation of local law enforcement, some anti-social elements were kept under control, ensuring smooth service.
Magicpin founder and CEO Anshoo Sharma said that the strike had no impact on the platforms and that food delivery once again played a vital role in the New Year's celebrations. Millions of orders were received every hour in metro cities. According to Swiggy data, over 2.19 lakh biryani orders were recorded before 7:30 pm alone.
Biryani, pizza, butter chicken, and traditional sweets were the hottest food on New Year's Eve. According to Magicpin, pizza remained the top choice, while orders for desserts like carrot halwa and ice cream tripled compared to last year. Dinner orders peaked around 9:30 pm in Delhi-NCR, with butter chicken being the top dish.
Bengaluru and Hyderabad led the way in dine-out bookings. Ahmedabad recorded the fastest growth (1.6 times), while Lucknow (1.3 times) and Jaipur (1.2 times) also followed.
Deepinder Goyal also clarified concerns raised about the 10-minute delivery model. He stated that this model is based on the proximity of stores, not on the expectation of fast driving by delivery partners. On average, deliveries are completed over a distance of less than 2 km and at a speed of 15 km per hour.
The Gig and Platform Services Workers Union (GIPSWU) claimed that over 100,000 workers joined the strike in 22 cities. However, the total number of gig workers in the country is over 12.7 million and, according to NITI Aayog, it could reach 23.5 million by 2029-30.
