Zomato expands offering, launches new API

With the app market becoming more competitive, strategic business partnerships can help to extend an app's capabilities and user base.

Working to expand its offering, Zomato frequently partners with local businesses and other apps.

For instance, at the beginning of this year, Zomato teamed up with Uber to allow users to book a taxi to the restaurant where they planned on dining.

More recently, Zomato has launched an API known as Foodie Index. The restaurant quality index is open to developers to build into their software applications.

The location-based system can be integrated into existing rental and travel platforms to provide information about the quality of restaurants in a particular area.

It was designed to help users find long or short term accommodation in the region of quality dining options.

The score of restaurants is based on local information and Zomato's user-generated content. At present, Zomato is said to have listed 1.4 million restaurants in 22 countries, including New Zealand.

"We're constantly finding ways to enrich dining experiences, and helping people discover places to eat around them.

"Partnering with local businesses allows Zomato's content to be easily accessible to people," says Kirsty Cardy, Zomato New Zealand country manager.

So far, CommonFloor has made the Foodie Index available throughout India on its Locality Map section, and the travel planning portal TripHobo, which is now available in 500 cities around the world, uses Foodie Index to offer dining suggestions to travellers.

"New Zealand is a hotspot for local and overseas travellers and we are looking for the right business partner to bring the Foodie Index here.

"The Foodie Index is a handy feature which will help people identify quality restaurant neighbourhoods when choosing a place to rent or live," says Cardy.

She says this latest initiative is one of the ways Zomato is working to build its platform.

"With our focus on 'Food-Tech', we want to enable every interaction between a restaurant and their customer.

"In addition to restaurant search and discovery, Zomato is expanding its offering to include in-app cashless payments, online ordering, and more relevant products that would bridge this gap," she says.