Zomato launches its own video platform with original shows

• Zomato has launched a video section on its platform, which will have 18 original shows.
• Starting Monday, the platform is going to offer viewers and foodies original shows, recipes and more with over 2,000 videos.
• This makes the food aggregator unicorn the latest one to join the Indian OTT race.

Zomato knows you order food from the app while binge-watching stuff on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar etc. But the food aggregator doesn’t want you to leave its app. So it has launched its own video platform and original shows.

Through the video section on the Zomato app, the platform is going to offer original shows, recipes, and more with over 2,000 videos. It's launching 18 original shows, each of which will have episodes ranging between 3 to 15 minutes. The shows have been shot on a vertical frame making way for mobile-easy viewing.

These videos will range between comedy, reality, fiction, advice, celebrity interviews and will explore food in unique, engaging and entertaining videos, Zomato said in a statement.

The released trailer shows content from star Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, comedians like Sumukhi Suresh and Sahil Shah and a cooking show with Bollywood stars which will be hosted by Janice Sequiera.

The Indian OTT space has been buzzing with new entrants and mergers. Recently, e-commerce giant Flipkart announced its entry into the video content war, which in India is currently led by the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar. Smaller players like AltBalaji and Zee5 had announced a partnership to produce content together.

Meanwhile, Zomato’s entry into the video space comes at a time when its food vertical has been in the eye of multiple controversies thanks to its discounting features like Zomato Gold and Infinity Dining.The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) launched a ‘logout’ movement last week claiming that the business practices of aggregators are unethical.

Now, Zomato has put a ‘pause’ on its infinity dining feature.