Zomato’s gamble with ‘Eternal’: A visionary leap or just a name game?

For consumers, nothing changes—the Zomato app remains Zomato. However, chief executive officer (CEO) Deepinder Goyal sees this as a pivotal moment for the company. “We started using ‘Eternal’ internally when we acquired Blinkit, and we decided we would rename the company when something beyond Zomato became a significant driver of our future," he wrote in a letter to shareholders. With Blinkit’s expansion and new verticals emerging, that moment seems to have arrived.

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However, some industry experts believe this rebranding is more about optics than substance. A brand expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, remarked that Eternal reflects a desire for permanence in a highly volatile industry. “Seems they are manifesting an eternal business," he said. “But on a serious note, the food and grocery delivery business in India thrives on cheap labour and low operational costs. The moment labour markets tighten—say, due to a manufacturing boom in regions like UP (Uttar Pradesh) and Bihar—this model will face existential challenges. Indian consumers are highly price-sensitive and unwilling to pay steep delivery fees, making sustainability a real concern. The question is: will Eternal live up to its name when these economic shifts occur?"

Rationale for the name change

Sandeep Goyal, chairman of ad agency Rediffusion, views this shift as part of a broader trend in corporate restructuring. “Reconfiguring brand architecture is the norm these days. Alphabet, Meta and others have done it. Eternal is following the same format. The corporate brand will be distinct from the service brands—Zomato, BlinkIt and District. This gives the promoters a lot more flexibility in raising capital through mergers, demergers and other such structures. The consumer remains unaffected," he explained.

According to brand specialist Harish Bijoor, founder of Harish Bijoor Consults, renaming the company isn’t just cosmetic. “What’s in a name? Nothing, and everything. I do believe this change is more back-end than front-end. The key idea is to ensure that the brand’s individual footprint is far exceeded by the umbrella footprint of the mother company. Hence, the name change, and hence multiple businesses reaching out to varied distribution-intensive models, all coming under the umbrella of this new brand name. However, I believe it is business as usual; it is all about saying it’s only a back-end correction. It is an internal brand name that the company has been working with for a while, and now it is formalized as the company name. So, Zomato is but one of the five fingers of this hand."

Global playbook for Indian firms?

Zomato’s rebranding to Eternal follows a path well-trodden by global tech giants. Meta’s shift was an attempt to break away from its Facebook-first perception and focus on metaverse ambitions. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, helped reposition it as a multi-industry conglomerate with businesses spanning artificial intelligence, life sciences and cloud computing. Though met with mixed reactions, Twitter’s transition to X signified Elon Musk’s ambitions of making it an “everything app."

While these changes sought to signal business evolution, they also served reputation management purposes. Meta, for instance, rebranded in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, while Twitter’s transformation into X helped Musk dissociate from the company’s previous controversies.

However, India hasn’t seen many high-profile corporate name changes. There have been some strategic repositionings. Flipkart, for instance, has remained an independent brand even after its acquisition by Walmart, though it has expanded into various businesses like PhonePe and logistics. Walmart never rebranded Flipkart as an umbrella entity. Similarly, Reliance Jio evolved into Jio Platforms when it diversified beyond telecom into digital services, payments and e-commerce.

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Airtel, on the other hand, established Airtel Digital as an umbrella brand for its non-telecom ventures, though it retained its core Airtel identity.

Unlike Alphabet or Meta, Indian companies tend to preserve their primary brand name even when branching out into multiple verticals. This is mainly because Indian consumers strongly associate businesses with their original brand names, and altering them too much could dilute brand equity. In that context, Zomato’s move to Eternal stands out as an unusual step in the Indian corporate landscape and will be a test case for how rebranding at the corporate level is received in the market, experts feel.

Beyond branding: Real challenges ahead

Goyal acknowledges that “Eternal" is a bold, even intimidating name that comes with the pressure of living up to its promise. But will this move fundamentally alter Zomato’s perception? That remains to be seen.

From an advertising and marketing perspective, the rebranding signals a long-term vision rather than an immediate shift in consumer-facing strategy. Unlike Meta or X, which overhauled their branding across products, Zomato will remain Zomato for consumers. For now, the change to Eternal is a corporate restructuring play, meant more for shareholders and industry watchers than for end users.

Yet, such a move could be a precursor to bigger changes, such as positioning Blinkit or any other businesses more prominently, hiving off and listing separately, or even acquiring new companies under the Eternal umbrella. If that happens, this rebranding might start a more profound corporate transformation.

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However, branding alone cannot solve the core challenges the business faces. While tech-driven expansion and strategic acquisitions have fuelled growth, the real test for Eternal will be how it manages its unit economics, labour dependency and long-term financial sustainability. Without a breakthrough in efficiency, the very business model of food and grocery delivery remains under threat—regardless of the name it operates under.

Investors, too, will be watching closely. Will this rebranding boost shareholder confidence and attract new capital, or will it be considered mere corporate theatrics? Ultimately, Eternal’s success will depend on its ability to innovate, streamline operations, and create a sustainable economic model in an industry known for razor-thin margins.