Zomato Swiggy unit economics have quietly caught up with the world’s largest food delivery market, and that is the headline from a new Bernstein report. China’s food delivery market is nearly 22 times bigger than India’s, and Chinese consumers earn far more. Yet on the metrics that decide whether a delivery business survives, the two Indian platforms are already in the same lane as Meituan.
$230 billion versus $10 billion
China’s food delivery market stood at around $230 billion in CY25, against over $10 billion in India in FY26. Meituan’s food delivery gross transaction value was an annualised $164 billion in the March 2026 quarter, roughly 29 times Zomato’s annualised GOV of $6 billion in Q1 FY27.
Now look at the same business one order at a time. Meituan made around $0.3 in operating profit per order at peak profitability in Q2 2024. Zomato and Swiggy each generated around $0.2 in adjusted EBITDA per order in Q1 FY27.
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Order values are within touching distance
Meituan’s average order value was around $7.2 at peak profitability. Zomato and Swiggy reported GOV per order of roughly $5.2 and $5.4 respectively. In other words, platforms working in a much smaller market with a lower income customer base are producing per order economics broadly comparable with China’s largest player.
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The scale gap, of course, stays enormous. Meituan generated $4.9 billion in food delivery operating profit in FY24, while Zomato reported $0.2 billion in adjusted EBITDA in FY26. Meituan also controlled around three fourths of China’s food delivery order share before competition intensified in 2025.
Room left to grow
Penetration is where India’s opportunity sits. Food delivery accounted for around 15% of the country’s food services market in FY26, compared with around 27% in China in FY25. India’s food delivery market has grown from just $1.2 billion in FY18 to more than $10 billion in FY26.
Why it matters
Indian food delivery has spent a decade being told it is an unprofitable habit propped up by venture money. The Bernstein numbers suggest something more interesting. The unit economics are already world class even though the market is a fraction of China’s size, which means the profit is coming from discipline rather than scale. If penetration doubles from 15% to 30%, the same playbook should produce far bigger numbers. The tricky part is that competition here is already fierce, and Meituan’s own story shows how quickly a comfortable lead can be fought over.