Foodpanda Attempts To Cash In On Zomato Hack, Gets Roasted Instead

Foodpanda attempted to rub salt into Zomato’s wounds after its recent hack, but things didn’t quite go as planned.

Last week, Zomato had revealed that 17 million users accounts from its site had been stolen. The news had created quite a hubbub — Zomato had sought to assure its users that their credit card information was safe, while technical folks speculated on how the attack had taken place. Amidst all this, Zomato Chief Technocrat Gunjan Patidar had posted about the entire incident, asking its users to not panic.

His tweet, though, caught the attention of Zomato’s arch rival, Foodpanda. Foodpanda India replied to it with its official account. “We are extremely saddened by this incident. However, our data is safe and sound.”

It was an unusual — and perhaps unnecessary — thing to say. While Zomato was busy fighting off hackers and a potential PR crisis, Foodpanda was asserting that its own data was safe. The comment rubbed some people the wrong way.

Others thought the remark was ironic given Foodpanda’s own troubles with data security. In 2015, Mint had published a detailed expose in which it had claimed that there had been widespread mismanagement at Foodpanda. Security at Foodpanda reportedly had been lax, with order details being managed on Excel sheets. 

 

Even Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal noticed the tweet. He responded to Foodpanda’s assertion that its data was safe and sound with a simple “good for you. “We wish this doesn’t happen to you,” he added.

Other Zomato employees, though, were in no mood to be as magnanimous. Akshar Patel, who works as a Brand Manager at Zomato, delivered probably the best burn of the lot.

 

Pathak’s tweet has managed to get nearly 150 RTs, and lots of reactions.

 

While Foodpanda conceivably has more than three users, it started a bit of a trend.

Ouch.