Zomato Permanently Closed in Indonesia, Directory Players Are Getting Eliminated

Zomato's restaurant directory application has officially ceased operations in Indonesia. The official announcement was made by the company via its website last week. The application can still be accessed specifically for search directories in India and the UAE only. However, the location directory in Indonesia is no longer available.

"It's time to say goodbye! Our presence in Indonesia has been a great journey, but sadly we have to stop our operations here! But we can still browse restaurants and order from Zomato's recommended food places in India and the UAE," the company wrote.

Previously in 2020, The company has indeed announced that it will close its branch office in Indonesia in October 2020. At that time, the subscription services were Zomato Pro and Zomato Gold, which allowed users to earn a certain amount benefits, such as the ease of making restaurant reservations and choosing a food menu, were also discontinued.

However, users can still access Zomato's services to browse restaurant and food place directories, both through the Zomato website and application. This is because the content maintenance here is carried out directly by the Zomato team at the head office in India.

Zomato itself entered the Indonesian market in November 2013 after officially debuting in India in July 2008.

Focus on improving performance

The closure of Zomato's international business is part of the company's efforts now focused on breaking even. Since 2021, the company has ceased almost all of its international business, including the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), Singapore and Lebanon.

Quote from Business Insider India, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal, said, “We are also closing our operations in Lebanon, which is the only international business we have (besides our dining business in the UAE) after closing the remainder of our international businesses operating last year.”

Zomato has identified three geographic segments to characterize its international business map. As of November 10 2021, consisting of:

1. India
2. United Arab Emirates (UAE)
3. Rest of the World (Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, USA, Lebanon, Turkey, Czech, Slovakia, Poland, Qatar, Ireland)

India is Zomato's largest market in terms of revenue, followed by the UAE. Therefore, both of these are maintained until now. In the United Arab Emirates, Zomato plays as a food aggregator platform, while in its stable, as a food delivery business.

remaining players

Zomato's departure at restaurant directory business in Indonesia, leaving Qraved and GoKuliner which are still operating under the same business model. The rest also provide directory services, but are not the main business, as Chope and Eatigo are. They both provide reservation service and food vouchers.

In interview Previously, GoKuliner Co-Founder Oswin Liandow said that only local players were able to survive and eventually become champions in the restaurant directory business. He also claims that GoKuliner is the only local culinary search platform with a growing number of objective reviews and high traffic.

The coverage of reviews on GoKuliner is spread across Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, Bandung and Surabaya, ranging from street food stalls to five-star hotel restaurants.

"PergiKuliner has been trying to focus on users. For restaurants, if they have a good business and quality food, it is of course very relevant to be our partner because we try to provide objective reviews," said Oswin.

As a media platform, the way of monetizing the GoKuliner is advertising for restaurant owners. The concept varies, whether the restaurant wants to behighlight from location, menu, and more. This method is actually carried out by various similar platforms, including Zomato and OpenRice which have left Indonesia.

Nonetheless, GoKuliner claims to work with restaurants that already have good popularity, in terms of price, location, to the taste and quality of the food. They carry out a curation process for anyone who wants to advertise and can refuse if they don't meet the requirements.

"I try to emphasize to the team that our mission is to provide restaurant reviews and recommendations objectively. To make our platform an accurate reference for users."