e-Food ! Pretty good !

The story dates back to the 1880's, when a person called Mahadeo Havaji Bachche decided to make a move. He recognised a need and made up his mind to serve it. The rest, as the saying goes, is history. Go to any IIM, and you will find a bunch of geeks trying to crack their code. They, ladies and gentlemen, are the 'Dabbawalas'.

A Dabbawallah

The magic is that this organisation, even after over 120 years of inception, still keeps growing at close to 8-10% every year. Winners, according to Shiv Khera, don't do different things; they simply do it differently. So, here we have a lot of upcoming winners in the space of electrons, trying to do in a different way, what the Dabbawalas have been doing for ages. This brings us to the hot new semi-industry called 'Online Food Ordering'.

The game's interesting. But, who's playing? Let's figure.

Yummm...

The gamer named justeat.in came into being in July 2006, with their first name 'Hungry Zone'. The concept was simply to make people avoid making phone calls to order. From just 15 restaurants to 2000 of them n a span of six years has been a really great journey that was intiated by Mr. Ritesh Dwivedy, once a techy. If you are a Delhite, go for it, I say.

Just Eat

If you happen to be in Pune, Mumbai or Bangalore, there's this player called tastykhana.in that's doing some awesome work. A brainchild of Shachin Bharadwaj, this was a typical home-startup back in October 2007. Now, whether you wish to have a sub or order a sumptuous mutton biryani from Faasos, you just need to dial 6000 8484. Afterall, you dont deserve to die hungry if your net isn't working. And yes, these guys take orders neatly and deliver on time. I've used their service and it definitely 'is' fantastic.

Tasty Khana

Then there's one called titbit.com. I don't quite like them. Just read the 'about us' section in their website and you will know that they don't belong to your 'taste'. I've seen this name associated with a few restaurants in Pune, but these people really love to complicate by what I get. I asked a couple of restaurants and came to know that their tie-ups are pretty complicated ones.

Titbit

Zomato is great. You find menus of all the restaurants out there on that website. The problem is that they do not deliver you the food. So, they aren't the single-point-solution to your hunger. They are more like a foodie's justdial on the net, but again, as I said, they are great at the bit they do. The best part about them is that they are everywhere. With 12 cities in India, 3 in the UAE and one in Sri Lanka, they are growing really fast. Sheer awesomeness, you see.

Zomato

In all, the scene's shaping up pretty well and the good news is that the industry is growing every quarter. People are growing lazier and the number of internet users is on a new high. That makes me assume that all the smart players in the marketspace are going to grow, given they play it cool and keep their promises, coz end of the day, that's what a foodie, or for that matter any customer wants.

All right then, ciao for now !