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With the emergence of various food and beverage apps, consumer choices have exponentially increased. Dineout is India’s largest dining out platform, which has tied up with more than 40,000 restaurants in 17 cities. Ankit Mehrotra, CEO and Co-founder, Dineout spoke to BE’s Aritra Mitra.

 Ankit Mehrotra

Q. What is the USP of Dineout? Almost all food-based apps are into food delivery business, so is Dineout missing out on something?                         

A. Food tech industry is at a booming stage and maximum consumers are moving closer to usage of tech driven platforms. India has also seen many players extending their services to the food aggregation space. According to the latest NRAI report of 2019, 75% of the business is still done by restaurants through dining-in rather than food delivery. With nearly one billion dining instances happening every year in India, the margins of dining-in are comparatively higher than takeaway options. When we look at an average order, a single dining occasion is worth `1800 as compared to ` 300 when it comes to home delivery. Dineout offers the most comprehensive range of F&B tech products, both on the B2C and B2B fronts. At present, Dineout is India’s largest dining out platform, seating more than nine million diners every month at more than 40,000 restaurants in 17 cities.

Q. Tell us something about your business model?

A. We have multiple revenue models in place and have a few products for which we charge an annual subscription fee from our restaurant partners as well as our consumers. We also have a performance driven transactional model where we make money on every transaction done through the platform which varies as per the restaurant and the city. We have a dedicated team and their function heads for each revenue stream. We have decentralised operations across all the cities that we are operating in. This helps in faster decision making.

Q. How are the customers being benefited from using this app? Are there any special offers for corporates?

A. By using Dineout, a diner can save a lot on their restaurant bills annually. While we always keep coming up with new offers and deals, the biggest benefit of our app is that diners can avail 20% cashback every single time they pay their restaurant bills via Dineout Pay. It’s 100% secure, quick and hassle free. The cashback received can be used again the next time they go out at any of our partner Dineout Pay restaurants. We’ve also occasionally tied up with banks and online wallets like HDFC Bank, RBL Bank, Paytm, ICICI Bank, HSBC Bank, Paypal, Google Pay and many more to provide exclusive discounts and cashback offers.

In addition, by using Gourmet Passport, our premium subscription membership programme, diners can get exclusive 1+1 deals on main course, buffets and drinks at more than 2,000 of the finest restaurants across the country.

For corporates, we’ve got Dineout Plus which offers handsome benefits for diners who are working professionals. It is operational in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai. Some of our finest five-star restaurants partners include The Lalit, Roseate House, JW Marriot, Westin, Le Meridien and more.

Q. Tell us something about your growth experience and what are your plans for the company?

A. The companyʼs ambition from day one was to deliver the best experience possible to the diner.  Like any start-up, we’ve had our share of ups and downs. We focused on listening to our three biggest stakeholders - our consumers, our restaurant partners and our team.

The biggest evolution in the past few years is in the way people are dining out. Restaurants are becoming smarter, and diners are becoming a lot more discerning and demanding with their entire focus on getting the right experiences. We plan to end FY 2020 with presence in 20 cities and add another 10,000 restaurants, taking the total count to around 50,000 restaurants across the platform. We have also started our international expansion and are looking to capture more markets.

Q. How is Dineout looking to use new technology?

A. We introduced Dineout Pay three years ago to provide a one-tap payment solution. Today, we are focusing on our latest offering, Dine-In, where customers will be able to view digital menus with images directly on their phone and will be able to place the order right away with just a tap. This will enhance user experience, as finally people will be able to see what a dish looks like before ordering and we all know how important that is.