Eternal vs Swiggy: diverging strategies, converging goals

In the fast-evolving landscape of online food delivery, quick commerce, and the “going out” category, Zomato’s parent company, Eternal, is showing clear signs of market leadership—at least on the financial scoreboard. The company posted its fourth consecutive profitable quarter, closing FY25 with a net profit of ₹537 crore. In contrast, arch-rival Swiggy remains in the red, reporting an adjusted loss of ₹3,117 crore for the same period.

Despite posting a 40% jump in revenue, from ₹11,634 crore in FY24 to ₹16,333 crore in FY25, Swiggy continues to be weighed down by its aggressive bets on quick commerce. High spending on dark store expansions, customer acquisition, and marketing has significantly added to its losses.

Zomato’s quick commerce arm, Blinkit, also reported increased losses in Q4, largely due to store expansion. However, the company has maintained that this was part of a calculated growth push. “We added 294 net new stores in Q4FY25, making it our highest-ever net store addition in a single quarter,” said Albinder Dhindsa, CEO of Blinkit.

Meanwhile, Swiggy Instamart added 498 stores over the entire fiscal year, with nearly half of its network being less than a year old. According to the company, the average age of these stores is under four months, leading to higher underutilised fixed costs. Elevated customer incentives and expansion into new geographies have further strained the bottom line.

To scale up its non-grocery offerings, Instamart also invested in 44 'Megapods'—larger-format dark stores that support a broader product range, including high-margin non-grocery SKUs. These Megapods, the company claims, are delivering higher Average Order Values (AOVs) and are playing a key role in expanding product assortment on the platform.

While food delivery remains the main revenue driver for both Zomato and Swiggy, the gap between Zomato and Blinkit’s revenue contribution is narrowing. In contrast, Swiggy’s dependence on its core food delivery business continues, with Instamart yet to reach meaningful scale or efficiency.

Adding to the pressure on Swiggy is intensifying competition in quick commerce from Zepto, Flipkart Minutes, and BigBasket. Swiggy’s recent launch of 'Bolt', a 10-minute food delivery service, aims to counter Zomato’s earlier experiment 'Zomato Quick, which has since been shut down due to operational challenges.

As both companies double down on quick commerce, the battle is not just about who delivers faster, but who gets to profitability first.