Zomato brings 'Gold' its premium subscription offering to India

The day Swiggy announced the launch of Swiggy Access, rival Zomato came up Zomato Gold in India. Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO, Zomato said in the company blog that after its successful run in UAE – Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and Portugal – Lisbon and Porto, the team is now launching Zomato Gold in India.

It is a membership programme for premium dining out and social drinking experiences. The programme works as an exclusive dine out and social drinking membership service that gives the users special perks like a complimentary dish, two complimentary drinks every time they choose to drink or dine at any of the Zomato Partnered restaurants in India.

A user can purchase the Zomato app for a three-month period priced at Rs 599 or an annual plan of Rs 1499. There is an early bird offer for three months at Rs 299 and the annual plan is at Rs 999.

The Gold members can avail complimentary meals and drinks at over 1200 curated restaurants across Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

The programme can be used at any of the Zomato partnered restaurants and bars on any day of the week or hour. The blog also said that the membership works on the entire menu – any drink or dish. “That means that Zomato Gold members get to save on every visit and all you need is your phone!”

The members also get exclusive invitations to different food and drink events like – new menu previews, wine tasting sessions, chef cookout sessions, new restaurant openings, and pub crawls. Currently, there are several players entering into the subscription space, Zomato charges zero commission for delivery service.

There are startups like FOOM that also offer subscription-based services. It is a platform that allows a customer to get free drinks at registered bars and pubs.

Once a customer registers on the application, they can get one free drink every day for a week, for a minimum bill amount is Rs 500. As a part of monthly subscription plan one can get unlimited beer four times in a month for Rs 999 person and as a part of weekly subscription plan, one can get an unlimited beer any day in a week for Rs 499 per person. Some other startups in this space include HipBar, The Bar Stock Exchange, and Hipcask.

It will be interesting to see how Zomato breaks into space.