Zomato’s ad for its '16th janamdin' gets a shout-out from Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Zomato, a platform that typically caters to the urban elite, has turned this perception on its head with its latest, hilarious advertisement. Newspaper readers in Delhi NCR woke up to a full-page Zomato ad in a leading publication. Modeled to mimic the style of Indian political billboards, the Zomato ad celebrated the company’s 16th birthday with a large photograph of its founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal, followed by smaller photographs of the C-suite.

The text, written in Hindi, read: “16th janamdin par aap sabhi ko apna pyar barsane ke liye koti koti dhanyavaad (On our 16th birthday, a big thanks to all of you for showering us with love).”

This was followed by a photograph of Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal aka “Company Pramukh”, as well as smaller photographs of other officials.

The ad ended with an invite for all Zomato customers to participate in the birthday celebrations with a special, one-day offer of buying Zomato Gold for ₹30 for 6 months.

Paytm CEO reacts

Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma was all praise for the advert. He shared a picture of the newspaper ad on X and congratulated Zomato for completing 16 years in the business.

His congratulatory message, written in Hindi, included a special shout-out for Zomato’s creative ad.

“On the 16th birthday of Zomato, heartiest congratulations to chief executive Mr. Deepinder ji and all the members of his team! May God always grant us such praiseworthy advertisements,” wrote the CEO of digital payments platform Paytm.

Zomato was founded as FoodieBay in July 2008 by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. The restaurant aggregator and food delivery company is today active in more than 1,000 cities. Headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana, Zomato has also expanded to other countries like New Zealand, Canada, Turkey, Brazil and more.

(Also read: Deepinder Goyal trolled over Zomato tips video with delivery agents: ‘HR asking employee’)