Food delivery apps Zomato and Swiggy reported a nationwide outage on Wednesday that appeared to have been caused by an Amazon Web Services snag that many online platforms rely on.
Both apps were back within half an hour but not before social media was flooded with complaints from users unable to place orders or browse menus and listings.
Customer support handles of both companies responded to the messages, saying they were working on resolving the “temporary glitch”.
Hi there. We’re currently unable to process your request as we’re experiencing technical constraints. Not to worry, our best minds are on it and we’ll be up and running soon.
Saikiran
— Swiggy Cares (@SwiggyCares) April 6, 2022
Hi Sahil, we are facing a temporary glitch. Please be assured our team is working on this and we will be up and running soon.
— zomato care (@zomatocare) April 6, 2022
A Zomato delivery partner said he wasn’t able to fulfil an order midway due to the app glitch. “I cannot come for delivery as the app is down,” said a Zomato delivery partner to a patron on the phone. The delivery guy, who had been waiting on a road in south Delhi’s Greater Kailash-1, said, “The app is down. I cannot deliver, according to instructions from Zomato.”
The two platforms – valued at around $10 billion each – dominate India’s online food delivery market in a duopoly that only this week attracted the attention of India’s antitrust watchdog.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Monday said it had ordered an investigation of the apps offered by both companies to verify if they were “neutral”, news agency Reuters reported.
The order came months after the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) asked the CCI to investigate the companies for breaching platform neutrality by providing priority to exclusive contractors.