Watch: Deepinder Goyal in splits as comedian roasts Zomato’s platform fee, rain surge
Comedian Swati Sachdeva questioned Zomato’s ever-increasing extraneous charges, CEO Deepinder Goyal in stitches.
On its 16th birthday last week, Zomato organised a roast. No, not the kind of roast you eat - Zomato staff and executives got together to listen to a bunch of comedians making jokes at their expense. The no holds barred comedy session was attended by Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal and the CEO of Zomato-owned Blinkit, Albinder Dhindsa, besides other employees.
During the roast, comedian Swati Sachdeva took the stage to question Zomato’s ever-increasing extraneous charges, including its platform fee and surge during rainy weather. Zomato recently increased its platform fee to ₹6 from the earlier ₹5. At the same time, the food delivery platform reduced the free delivery distance from 10 km to 7 km, sparking much dissatisfaction among customers.
Comedian Swati Sachdeva began her piece by thanking Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal for providing comedians with this stage tonight. “Now I just hope you don’t charge a platform fee for this as well,” she added as the punchline.
She then questioned the rainy weather surge applied even when there is no rain. “Your product managers run to the terrace to check if there are clouds and apply rain surge,” she quipped.
Sachdeva then singled out Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa. What, she wondered, is the point of adding a handling charge to grocery orders. If a person is delivering groceries, they will naturally have to handle them, she reasoned.
Her joke drew sheepish laughter from the audience. On the other hand, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal was in splits at the dig.
Take a look at the video below:
Zomato invited seasoned comedians like Gaurav Kapoor and Samay Raina for the roast.
The comedy roast was organised to celebrate the platform’s 16th birthday. Zomato also took out a full-page ad in a leading newspaper on its birthday. Done in the style of political pamphlets, the ad was widely praised for its creativity.