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Despite a call for a strike by delivery boys, food delivery aggregators Swiggy, Zomato and magicpin claimed to have seen a massive surge in food orders and delivered them in unprecedented numbers. Deepak Shenoy, CEO of Capitalmind AMC, believes the reason is simple: delivery workers do not feel oppressed enough and are not tempted to give up their income for this demand.
“It sometimes takes well less than 10 minutes for me, and I don’t care, I would easily wait 30 minutes, but the dark store is about 200 meters away so they could walk and deliver in 10 minutes,” Shenoy said in response to a message from Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal.
“The fact that delivery workers are not participating in the strike is simply because they don’t feel oppressed enough. Almost everyone complains about their work. Even the founders do, but they have no one to blame. It’s good to feel like you deserve more, but it’s another thing entirely to give up your income for this demand,” Shenoy explained.
It comes as Swiggy, Zomato and magicpin said they saw a record surge in food orders across major Indian cities on New Year’s Eve, hitting record delivery figures despite a strike by sections of gig workers. Platforms reported minimal disruptions, with most delivery partners continuing operations, ensuring millions of customers receive their orders on time.
In a post, Goyal said, “Zomato and Blinkit delivered at a record pace yesterday, unaffected by the strike calls many of us have heard over the past few days. Support from local law enforcement agencies helped control the small number of miscreants, enabling over 4.5 lakh delivery partners across the two platforms to deliver over 75 lakh orders (an all-time high) to over 63 lakh customers during the day.
Anshoo Sharma, founder and CEO of magicpin, reported that the strike had no impact on their operations, stating that the company saw “no impact” from the strike called by gig worker unions. Magicpin noted that thousands of orders were pouring into metro cities every hour, reflecting high demand.
On Swiggy, biryani was in high demand, with 2.19 lakh orders placed before 7:30 p.m. Swiggy added: “Meanwhile, the age-old battle between pizza and burgers continued. As of 8:30 p.m., over 2.18 lakh pizzas had been shipped, while burgers fought back with over 2.16 lakh orders, proving that India’s palate is as diverse as its celebrations.
Meanwhile, the Gig and Platform Services Workers’ Union said more than a million workers in 22 cities have joined the strike, while estimates place the number of gig workers in India at 12.7 million, with the NITI Aayog forecasting an increase to 23.5 million by 2029-30.
