Zomato and Swiggy pause gamification on app after Google notice

September 30, 2020

Food tech firms Zomato and Swiggy have paused their Indian Premier League (IPL) led cashback games on their app after search major Google sent them notices pertaining to violation of Google Play rules around ‘gambling’ or real-money gaming.
According to three individuals aware about the discussion, Google sent notices to these companies between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, regarding their IPL-led cashback schemes.

“The notices have been sent by Google’s global Play store team, with its Indian team relatively unaware about the matter. Zomato and Swiggy are not the only companies, Google has sent notices to. There are some more,” said one of the individuals, who didn’t want to be named.
Zomato was running Zomato Premier League, on its app, where users could make predictions about the ongoing IPL match, and earn cashbacks; Swiggy was running Match Day Mania offers during IPL matches.
Zomato confirmed the development to Mint and called the move from Google unfair.
“Yes, we have received a notice from Google. We believe that the notice is unfair, but we are a small company and have already realigned our business strategy to comply with
Swiggy declined to comment on Mint’s queries on the matter. This development was first reported by technology news portal, ETtech.

The IPL- season has been critical for India’s food tech sector which has been reeling from the impact of the pandemic.
The online food delivery segment has been hinging their hopes on the IPL-season for a faster recovery, as they expect to get back dormant customers.
“With IPL people would like to focus on the match and order in food. Hence, we are hinging our hopes on this quarter, to get users back on to Swiggy, as we expect order frequencies to go up. IPL and other festivities could accelerate recovery by a quarter. We are already planning a new advertisement series to restore consumer confidence and will offer new constructs of deals, discounts and gamification,” said Swiggy’s chief operating officer (COO), Vivek Sunder in an earlier interaction with Mint.