Zomato expects to ‘easily’ hit 5,000 orders a minute on New Year’s eve

“App opens are up 91% w-o-w (compared to 24 Dec, which was unusually high anyway). Expecting this 91% to land at 200-250% by 7pm,” Goyal tweeted.

In response to a Twitter user, Goyal said the company will hit more than 5,000 orders per minute “easily”. “Aiming for much higher today,” Goyal said in another tweet.

Last year, Zomato had hit 4,254 orders per minute.

This comes amid the latest restrictions across Indian states banning outdoor and indoor celebratory events owing to the fresh surge in cases from the Omicron variant.

New Years eve has been an especially busy time for the food delivery industry ever since the Covid-19 pandemic. Both Swiggy and Zomato recorded the highest ever orders for New Year’s Eve dinner in 2020.

Zomato recorded 60% higher sales on December 31, 2020, over New Year’s eve 2019. Its gross merchandise value last new year’s eve was Rs 75 crore.

“War room ready for tonight. I hope AWS doesn’t run out of servers,” Goyal said in another tweet. “Big day today for the restaurant industry. Stay home, stay safe, and order away. We are ready to serve you.”

“No party tonight (hospitality industry is always working when everyone else is celebrating). It’s going to be a long workday today,” Goyal wrote.

With stricter curbs and night curfews across states following a spike in Covid-19 cases, most restaurants are doubling down on delivery efforts and their cloud kitchen formats as eating out takes a hit, ET reported on Thursday.

Both Swiggy and Zomato have been preparing by expanding their delivery fleets, support and operations staff in anticipation of a record spike in orders.