With the coronavirus lockdown keeping restaurants closed and would-be diners at home, takeaway meal options have been booming in India. And there are signs that the shift toward home-delivered food is here to stay.
Cloud kitchens – commercial cooking facilities that have no physical dining space and cater only to delivery orders placed online – are projected to become a US$2bil (RM8.52bil) industry in India by 2024, according to RedSeer Management Consulting. That’s up from US$400mil (RM1.7bil) in 2019. In a survey carried out by the company, 21% of the respondents said they were more likely to increase their online ordering of takeaway food after the lockdown, while just 9% said they were more likely to visit restaurants more often.