Foodtech platform Zomato has started testing a new feature where consumers can post reviews of restaurants and add photos of their favourite food items which will be displayed on top of the app’s feed.
The feature, which is currently available for select users, allows consumers to add a review, post photos and short stories and connect with their friends and food bloggers to know their favourite food items, restaurants and reviews they post.
While people usually find such reviews by anonymous users, the new feature will allow them to see reviews and stories posted by their friends and verified accounts of food bloggers around them.
Entrackr has sent queries to Zomato over the new feature. We’ll update the post as soon as we hear from them.
The development comes four months after Zomato, as well as its arch-rival Swiggy, tied up with Instagram to help small businesses to receive orders through the social network. Under the initiative, Instagram has launched a food order stickers for businesses and these stickers can be shared on Instagram Stories to get orders from customers.
Zomato’s new experiment appears to be aimed to trigger engagement and build a reliable review ecosystem. It’s worth noting that Zomato had faced backlash in the past for fake reviews. To improve discovery and dining experience, the platform split unified ratings of restaurants into delivery and dining.
At the beginning of this year, Zomato also made changes in algorithms to weed out fake reviews.
The new feature lets influencers to establish connections with foodies through their reviews and feedback. Overall, the feature looks similar to Instagram and Twitter ‘Stories’ and ‘Fleets’ features respectively.
While Zomato recently announced that it had reached its pre-Covid peak, restaurant discovery and table reservations are yet to bounce-back completely. Given that people have been avoiding to dine out in restaurants, transparent reviews may help users to weigh pros and cons before reserving a table at a particular restaurant.
