Zomato or Eternal — what’s in a name, indeed? Even with a new name, the Deepinder Goyal-led company is dealing with the same old problem. Can food delivery show growth and profits at the same time?

Let’s break down Eternal’s Q4 numbers, and the state of food delivery and quick commerce, and asses whether concerns of a food delivery ceiling are warranted.

Our focus this week is largely on Zomato and the food delivery business because despite growing in scale, the Blinkit piece is more or less at the same position on the board as it was one year ago, even though the game itself has gotten bigger.

However, we would be focussing on Blinkit towards the end and how it is influencing the course of Eternal’s Hyperpure business as well.

The Eternal Food Delivery Conundrum

The perennial argument is that food delivery is an underpenetrated segment, but given the slow customer addition, it seems that this remains so for a reason. But Zomato continues to believe that it can pull more users from the untapped base and from rivals in the future.

The numbers for Q4 FY25 show that new customer addition has not exactly set new benchmarks in the past year. Gross order value grew 16% YoY (-1% QoQ due to seasonality). It could have been higher by approximately 2% but for the company delisting approximately 19,000 restaurants.

Average monthly transacting users grew by 10% YoY from 19 Mn to 20.9 Mn, but under 2% quarter-on-quarter.

For further clarity, Zomato’s MTU base grew by 4 Lakh in the quarter, similar to the numbers seen in the previous three quarters. The monthly net additions have largely remained flat for the full fiscal year, but whether this reflects a sector-wide chill will be clearer by this time next week when Swiggy also makes its Q4 disclosures.

As for food delivery hitting a growth wall — this question was on everyone’s minds after the last quarter too. Eternal’s overall profits plunged 77.8% to INR 39 Cr in Q4 FY25 from INR 175 Cr in the year-ago period and INR 59 Cr in the previous quarter, as reported this week.

JM Financial trimmed GOV estimates for Zomato (food delivery) by 1-2% over FY26-27 on the back of broader headwinds for discretionary spending in the country.

For arch rival Swiggy, in Q3 FY25, the losses widened to

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