After arriving with great fanfare, the restaurant review company's New Zealand subsidiary made barely $60,000 last year, according to stock market filings.
In the last two or three months, more observant diners searching for menus and reviews may have noticed Zomato and its prominent place in Google searches, was nowhere to be seen.
The Indian-founded restaurant review business quietly exited New Zealand in February with no local coverage aside from a Reddit post or two.
The food aggregator business, which sometimes frustrated users by requiring sign-up to look at menus, first entered New Zealand in 2013 in the Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton markets, before expanding through its purchase of local rival MenuMania in 2014.
It also provided end-to-end payment for food orders and went on to launch its subscription service Zomato Gold in Auckland in 2019, offering users a complimentary dish or drinks from participating restaurants.
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Like so many hospitality-centric businesses Zomato struggled through the pandemic, though during Alert Level 3 it launched a two-month commission-free takeaway option.
In three days, more than 320 Auckland restaurants signed up to the programme.
Its New Zealand website now hosts a goodbye message and a prompt to check out its India and UAE offerings.
On March 31, the company told the Indian Stock Exchange it had begun the liquidation process of its inactive New Zealand and Australian subsidiaries, appointing Greg Millar to wrap up Zomato NZ Media Private Limited.
That announcement placed Zomato’s New Zealand revenue for the year to March 31, 2022 at just over $60,000 and valued it at roughly $430,911 – making up just 0.01 percent of Zomato’s net worth.
According to Millar’s first report into the business, it is wrapping up with no debt and $819,000 in the bank.
Zomato’s exit leaves Google as the sole large player in food reviews and menu previews. Will it be missed?
Restaurateurs have had a love-hate relationship with Zomato and similar sites since their inception – good reviews bring in customers while bad deter customers. Restaurant owners have previously expressed frustration at negative reviews and the impact they have.
Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois said online critiques were a one-way conversation that allowed for a customer to vent but very rarely resulted in improved experiences.
“It can help diners discover new places and share their own positive experiences which can certainly help attract people to our venues.
“Negative and fake reviews can also be a little more problematic and potentially damaging to a business’s reputation so if a customer has had a poor experience there is really no substitute to a good ‘old fashioned’ face-to-face conversation.”
