MANILA – A companion for Filipino foodies since its launch in 2013, Zomato Philippines is now aiming to become a thought leader for a restaurant industry hungry for trends and knowledge on their craft.
It was a full house at the inaugural Zomato Restaurant Summit yesterday, held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel yesterday, exceeding its original target to reach over 500 guests.
The venue was packed when registration opened and by the end of Anton Ojeda’s opening remarks, additional tables were needed to be called in to accommodate everyone.
It was a pleasant surprise adds Ojeda, Zomato Philippines’ country manager, validating that bringing the summit here in the Philippines will be just a hit for the brand but also a benefit for the industry.
“We saw this hole that we needed to fill. Yes, there are other venues for the industry to meet but most talked about marketing or digital… FMB but about suppliers, hotels. There’s nothing specific for restaurants.”
Attendees were treated to remarkable talks from the the food industry best minds – The Moment Group founding partner Abba Napa, Margot Torres, VP for marketing of Golden Arches Development Corporation, restaurateur Claude Tayag, food blogger Anton Diaz and Chef Sau del Rosario, owner of Food Garage, to mention just a few.
Now scheduled to be an annual event, Ojeda said that their guests weren’t just here just for the speakers.
“Alot of the restaurant owners end up as competition and don’t necessarily talk to each other anymore. It creates barriers but we aim to break them down. I believe we can bring them all together here in this venue and learn new things from each other..opinions..ideas…experiences.,” he said.
Ojeda also shared to the audience how Zomato have immensely grown since last year. To date, Zomato Manila now boasts having 11,000 restaurant partners and with a massive reach of 8 million users. And as for engagement, it has recorded 260,000 check-ins, 242,000 bookmarks, amassed 170,000 photos and 50,000 reviews.
He also shared to adobo that up to 46% of Zomato manila’s web traffic is coming from mobile – a trend Ojeda expects to continue as more mobile players get in and online penetration get deeper.
We are a good reflection of trends, in this case about consumers, and we want to be a reflection of trends in the business side as well. We want to help business along because the more restaurants there are, the better the quality for the entire industry and us.
Where is Zomato Philippines off to next? Ojeda shared with the press that they will be opening Zomato Cebu on May 29 this year covering 9 cities across the island and an initial data base of over 3,000 restaurants.
“We also looked at the statistics and looked for the next place who had the most restaurants and it so happens that its Cebu. Ask our CEO (Deepinder Goyal) how we plan for expansion and hell make a joke that its using a world map and a dart board.”
adobo, can also reveal that Zomato Philippines will soon expand into online ordering. Details is tight underwraps but Ojeda said : The next big thing for Tomato is online ordering. With an app or a website, you can just order your food from there in a snap.”
