Zomato is close to sharing customer phone numbers with restaurants after a decade of data masking. Here is what the deal really includes, what it leaves out, and what to do next.
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Ten years. That is how long Indian restaurants have been asking Zomato and Swiggy one question: who is actually ordering my food?
The answer is finally arriving. Zomato is in advanced talks with the National Restaurant Association of India, the body representing roughly five lakh eateries, to start sharing customer contact details with restaurant partners. A consent prompt is already being tested inside the app, asking users whether they want their phone number shared with restaurants for marketing updates. NRAI has confirmed that similar conversations are underway with Swiggy. Rapido's food delivery arm, Ownly, went first and agreed to share customer data with restaurants from day one, a move that reportedly pushed the incumbents to reconsider.
For an industry that dragged both aggregators to the Competition Commission of India in 2021, with data masking as a core allegation alongside commissions that climbed from 5 to 7 percent to nearly 35 percent, this looks like a landmark win.
It is a win. But read the fine print, because what restaurants are getting is much smaller than the headlines suggest.
Three details matter.
First, it is a phone number. That is all. Zomato's leadership has been explicit: if and when consent is provided, only the phone number will be shared. Not order history. Not cuisine preferences. Not ticket sizes or locality trends. The data points NRAI spent years asking for are not on the table. A ten digit number is.
Second, it depends entirely on customer consent. Restaurants receive the number only when a user actively agrees to receive marketing messages. Think honestly about how often you tap yes on a prompt like that. The restaurants expecting a flood should prepare for a trickle.
Third, the obligations come with it. Once you hold customer numbers directly, you start looking like a data fiduciary under the DPDP framework, with real duties around storage, consent, and withdrawal. Privacy advocates and a member of the parliamentary IT standing committee have already raised concerns. The compliance burden the aggregators carried is now partly yours.
Even with the phone number in hand, the next order still happens on Zomato. The customer's saved addresses live there. Their payment methods live there. Their habit lives there. When they reorder your biryani next Friday, it routes through the same app, at the same commission, with the same platform fee on top. You can now send them a WhatsApp message. They will still checkout somewhere you pay 25 to 35 percent to access.
A phone number is a lead. It is not a relationship, and it is definitely not a channel.
The aggregators understand this perfectly, which is partly why the concession became possible. Sharing a contact field costs them very little as long as the transaction rails stay theirs. The moat was never the phone number. The moat is where the reorder happens.
The deal is an ingredient, not a meal. The number only becomes valuable when you have somewhere to point it.
Build the destination before you build the list. A direct ordering channel, your own branded site, your own app, or ordering over WhatsApp, is what converts a contact into a customer. Without it, the phone number is just a spam opportunity.
Make the first direct order stupidly easy. The message you send should carry a link that opens your full menu in one tap, no app download, no signup. Every step of friction returns the customer to the aggregator's saved convenience.
Give them a reason the aggregator cannot match. You keep 25 to 35 percent more on a direct order. Share some of it. A standing 10 percent off for direct orders still leaves you ahead, and it gives the customer a rational reason to change a habit.
Respect the consent. NRAI's own leadership has stressed the goal is understanding ordering habits, not blasting promotions. Restaurants that message sparingly will keep their lists. The ones that spam will train customers to opt out for everyone.
This is where a platform like Menuthere fits: the owned side of the equation. A branded ordering website and app, WhatsApp ordering where a customer sends a hi and gets a live menu, zero commission on every direct order, and orders syncing straight into Petpooja POS. The unmasking deal hands you the contact. The direct channel is what makes the contact worth having.
Ownly launched with data sharing and single digit commissions. Zomato is conceding on masking after a decade. Swiggy is at the table. The CCI investigation opened in 2022 is still pending. Every force in the market is pushing the same direction: toward restaurants having a direct line to the people they feed.
The unmasking is coming. The question is whether you have anywhere to point it.
Menuthere helps restaurants launch their own branded ordering platform with zero commission and full Petpooja POS integration. See how it works at menuthere.com.
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