Zomato expands restaurant search into SA

The service launched its operations in Johannesburg in April 2013, followed by Cape Town in July and Pretoria in September. Covering over 5000 restaurants in South Africa, it provides key information such as menus, photographs, contact details, geo-coded maps, user ratings and reviews, making it one of the most exhaustive restaurant discovery platforms in the country

It has also announced the launch of its services in Brasil (Sao Paulo), Indonesia (Jakarta) and Turkey (Istanbul and Ankara). In these countries, it will be available in local languages - Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia and Turkish respectively. In addition, it has also expanded its services within the UK from three cities to five, with the inclusion of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

It believes that menus, pictures and maps are as important as reviews when it comes down to a customer's decision-making process about where to eat. It follows a rich-content approach to restaurant search and has a team that collects menu cards, clicks pictures and gets mapping information on its own. Users provide reviews and ratings.

Pooja Khanna, CEO of Zomato South Africa said, "South Africa has been one of our best performing markets. The market has great potential with lots of restaurants and a growing internet and smartphone penetration. The response from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria has been overwhelming and we expect the trend to continue with Durban."

For more information, go to www.zomato.com