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Your phone number is at the center of a fight between Zomato and Indian restaurants
Episode 630

Your phone number is at the center of a fight between Zomato and Indian restaurants

Daybreak

November 27, 202511m 2s

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Show Notes

India's restaurants just won a four-year battle for customer data access from Zomato and Swiggy. But here's the twist: this "victory" comes precisely as the industry becomes more platform-dependent than ever. 

While the NRAI celebrates phone number sharing, investors are pouring billions into QSRs and cloud kitchens—business models that assume permanent platform capture. With delivery platforms extracting 16-30% commissions and controlling discovery, logistics, and customer acquisition, data sharing is less a power shift and more a pressure valve. 

The real story? Restaurants are betting that platform-enabled scale will overcome platform-extracted margins. Host Rachel Varghese explores.

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newstechnologybusinessThe Ken