Zomato closes Intercity Legends due to poor market fit

Zomato has announced the immediate shutdown of its Intercity Legends service, which allowed customers to order iconic dishes from ten cities across India and have them delivered to other parts of the country. Deepinder Goyal, the Chief Executive Officer of the online food delivery giant, shared the decision on X, attributing the closure to a lack of product-market fit.

"Update on Zomato Legends – after two years of trying and not finding product-market fit, we have decided to shut down the service with immediate effect," Goyal wrote.

Intercity Legends was launched in 2022 with the ambitious goal of connecting various parts of India through its unique food delivery service. Initially, there was no minimum order requirement, but the service was suspended in April. It briefly resumed in July with modifications aimed at improving profitability, including the introduction of a minimum order value of ₹5,000. Despite these efforts, the service proved to be financially unviable for Zomato.

At the time of Intercity Legends' launch, Zomato had expressed high hopes for the service in a blog post, stating, "A jewel hides in every nook and corner of India. With over 100 airports and a rich spread of the most iconic dishes that India has to offer, the sky is the limit to how big Intercity Legends can become."

The decision to shut down Intercity Legends is part of Zomato's broader strategy to shift focus and diversify into other sectors to boost revenue and strengthen its market position. This announcement comes just a day after Zomato revealed its plans to acquire the movie and events ticketing businesses of fintech giant Paytm for ₹2,034 crore.

The closure of Intercity Legends adds to Zomato's track record of discontinuing services that did not meet expectations. Previously, the company shut down Xtreme, a hyperlocal logistics service that allowed merchants to send and receive small parcels, after it failed to deliver the anticipated results. In January 2023, Zomato also scrapped Instant, its 10-minute delivery service, just a year after piloting it in Bengaluru, Gurugram, and select areas of Delhi