Zomato ventures into content streaming, announces original shows
What's the story
After leading the game of food-delivery, Zomato is gearing up to take on Netflix and Amazon. Yes, the food-tech giant has announced its plan to venture into the video streaming arena with its own originals and short videos. The "food-centric" content will be available starting September 16 in a new 'Videos' section of the Zomato app. Here's all about it.
Issue
Zomato wants people to go 'binge and feast'
As people love to munch on their favorite grub while watching shows, Zomato has taken up on itself to bring the best of food and online content. The company has said that the new 'Videos' section of the Zomato app will let you stream content that would revolve around food with the twist of Comedy, reality, fiction, and more.
Quote
The idea is to delight the users
"We're constantly looking for new ways to engage our users around food. Most of our users visit our app several times a week. This presents us with an opportunity to further delight our users using Zomato Originals," Deepinder Goyal, CEO and Founder, Zomato said.
Content
Over 2,000 shows, videos will be available
Zomato has said that the new section will feature more than 2,000 videos, including recipes and Sneak Peek restaurant stories, categorized by genres. It will release 18 originals over the next three months: Food and You with Sanjeev Kapoor, Banake Dikha with Sumukhi Suresh, Grandmaster Chef with Sahil Shah, Starry meals with Janice, Dude, where's the food with Jordindian, and Race Against the App.
Format
Videos will not be longer than 15 minutes
All the content featuring in Zomato videos will range between 3-15 minutes. The clips will play in the mobile-friendly vertical format but do note that only users from India will be able to access Zomato Originals. Apart from this, everything else, including Sneak Peek and celebrity interviews, will be available to Zomato users in other parts of the world.
Competition
Bold move to venture in video
With engaging video content, Zomato hopes to get more people to open its app and drive more sales. Flipkart recently executed a similar move with a dedicated video section in its main app. But, it still remains to be seen how these services would fare against Netflix, Hotstar, and Amazon Prime Video - players already leading in the video streaming category.