New Delhi, Aug 28 (IANS): Giving a tough fight to Zomato-Swiggy dominance in online food delivery market, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), an initiative of the government, on Monday said that 50,000 restaurants are now live for placing online orders on the Open Network, across 172 cities.

The number of restaurants on the Open Network shot up from 500 in February 2023 to 50,000 in August 2023, depicting exponential growth.

“What started with our first order in September 2022, the Network has onboarded over 50,000 restaurants till now. As we continue to grow and expand, we are excited about the future of online food delivery in the ecommerce ecosystem and our role in shaping it,” said T. Koshy, MD and CEO at ONDC.

ONDC said that Seller Network Participants (NPs) are central to this achievement, like Magicpin, uEngage, Bitsila, EkSecond, Growth Falcons, Mystore, nStore, and eSamudaay.

ONDC aims to double the restaurant count by the end of 2023. Consumers can order food online on the ONDC Network via Buyer Apps including Paytm, Pincode, Magicpin, Mystore among others.