Why is Zomato more than twice as popular in Melbourne than Sydney?

Over the year from March 2015, just over 1m Australians visited Zomato in an average month, equivalent to 5.3% of Australia’s population.  

The site was most popular in Melbourne, where almost 9% of Melburnians visited it, followed by Canberra and Perth. Brisbane’s appetite for Tomato reviews was spot-on average, just ahead of Adelaide’s, but just 1 in 25 Sydneysiders visited it—the lowest rate of all mainland capitals. 

Outside these cities, 3.5% of people visited the website in an average four weeks, representing just under a quarter of its total audience. 

“It might be tempting to assume that Melbourne is simply much more of a foodie town, with locals more interested in restaurant reviews. However almost two in three Sydneysiders discuss restaurants, by giving or getting advice to family and friends about where to eat​,” said Michele Levine, chief executive of Roy Morgan Research. 

This is only marginally less than the 68% of Melburnians who discuss restaurants, while in Sydney, almost one in eight consider themselves restaurant “early adopters” who are among the first to dine out at the latest eateries—actually even higher than the one in 10 in Melbourne.  

If Sydney and Melbourne share a similar level of interest in restaurants, why the gap in Zomato’s popularity? Levine believes this is down to disappearing competition.

In January 2015, the Indian digital media company Zomato acquired Urbanspoon. Six month later, the US-based site was gone for good and its traffic diverted to Zomato. This coincided with the end of home-grown competitor Eatability. 

“Australian restaurant review website Eatability—launched in 2003 and bought by Optus in 2012—closed in June last year, around the same time that Zomato had fully dissolved and replaced its acquisition Urbanspoon​,” said Levine.

“Zomato should take note that Eatability was consistently around three times more popular in Sydney than in Melbourne, even as its audience halved from a peak of over 500,000 monthly visitors in 2012 down to around 200,000 during its final year. Clearly, Eatability had offered something that Sydney wanted​.”   

Accordingly, Levine advises the new reviews player to be cautious if it wants to increase its footing in the Sydney market

“It might need to examine those who’ve come before, and learn more about the differences between Melbourne’s and Sydney’s foodies​,” she said.