Food apps fuel India’s hungry gig economy
Platforms deliver much-needed income with joblessness riding at 45-year high
Suraj Nachre works long hours and often misses meals, but he treasures his job as a driver for a food delivery startup — working in a booming industry that highlights India’s expanding apps-based gig economy.
The 26-year-old is one of hundreds of thousands of young Indians who, armed with their smartphones and motorcycles, courier dinners to offices and homes ordered at the swipe of a finger.
A surge in the popularity of foodordering apps, such as Uber Eats and Swiggy, provides a welcome source of income for many as India's unemployment rate sits at a reported 45-year high.
But they also shine a spotlight on the prevalence of short-term contracts in the economy, raising questions about workers' rights and conditions and the long-term viability of the jobs.
“( These delivery workers) are treated as independent contractors, so labor laws governing employees are not applicable and they lack job security,” Gautam Ghosh, a human resources consultant, said.
“While jobs created by food delivery apps are crucial, they may not exist in 10 years, so for most youngsters they are a stopgap arrangement,” he added.
India's army of food delivery drivers became a talking point on social media late last year when a rider for the Zomato platform was filmed sampling a customer's order. The video, apparently shot on a mobile phone, showed the man taking bites from several food parcels before wrapping them again. It sparked anger online and he was promptly sacked.
Many Internet users rallied to his defence, however. They insisted that the two-minute clip showed he was hungry and desperate, and said Zomato had acted harshly in dismissing him.
“It is a challenging job,” said Nachre, expressing sympathy for the unnamed delivery man who was working in the southern city of Madurai before being fired.
“We work 12 hours straight in soaring heat and heavy rains. Sometimes I don't even have time to eat,” he said.
Nachre drives for the Scootsy platform. He leaves home at 9 a.m. and does not return until after 1 a.m. Navigating Mumbai's trafficchoked roads makes work stressful, he said.
“We're always in a rush to deliver industry is worth an estimated $7 billion to Asia's third-largest economy, according to market research firm Statista, and is expanding rapidly.
Swiggy announced at the end of last year that it had received $1 billion in funding from foreign backers, including South Africa's Naspers and China's Tencent.
That put the valuation of the fiveyear-old company, based in Bangalore, at more than $3 billion.
Zomato, Swiggy's nearest challenger for market dominance, is being aggressively backed by Alibaba's Ant Financial. The Chinese giant recently pumped in $210 million, valuing the Delhibased startup at $2 billion.
The food delivery platforms are soaring as India's growing middle classes take advantage of better smartphone connectivity and cheap data plans that are fueling a gig economy centered on technology.
Informal, casual labor has long been the bedrock of India's economy, but now Indians can access a host of services on their phones, ranging from hiring a rickshaw to booking a plumber or yoga teacher.
FlexingIt, a global consulting agency, estimates the country's gig economy has the potential to grow up to $30 billion by 2025.