Zomato unveils 'District' to capture its going-out market

The app will feature dining-out services and add options for movie tickets, sports events, live shows, shopping, and staycations.

Food aggregator company Zomato has introduced a new app called District to offer beyond food delivery and quick commerce. This new app brings together various services for going out like dining, movies, sports tickets, live shows, shopping, and staycations.

In a meeting with shareholders after Zomato's first-quarter results, CEO Deepinder Goyal shared that this new venture has great potential for growth.

He highlighted that while Zomato and Blinkit currently cater to customers' needs at home, there is a big chance to grow into the market for going-out activities.

Goyal pointed out that Zomato's dining-out business is profitable, with an annual Gross Order Value (GOV) of over $500 million.

"We believe that there is an opportunity to further expand our going-out offering, building on top of our dining-out business. Additional use cases for customers in the going out space include - movies, sports ticketing, live performances, shopping, staycations etc., some of which we have already launched, or are building as we speak."

This move aims to make 'going-out' the third major business for customers that comes from Zomato.

“Building a one-stop destination app for going-out could be a game changer for each of these use cases, and we intend to do exactly that with our new District (by Zomato) app. If we execute this well, we see going-out becoming the 3rd large B2C business emerging out of Zomato,” Goyal added.

The launch of District puts Zomato in competition with platforms like BookMyShow. In June 2024, Zomato announced that it is discussing with Paytm to buy its movies and ticketing business, strengthening its move into the going-out market.