Food delivery company Zomato is expecting its app open rate to increase by 200-250% week-on-week.

Its app open rates are already up 91% compared to December 24 week-on-week, co-founder and chief executive Deepinder Goyal tweeted on Friday.

“App opens are up 91% w-o-w (compared to 24 Dec, which was unusually high anyway). Expecting this 91% to land at 200-250% by 7 pm,” Goyal wrote on Twitter.

This comes amid event restrictions across states owing to a surge in cases due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

New Year’s Eve has been a busy time for the food delivery industry ever since the pandemic.

Both Swiggy and Zomato recorded the highest-ever orders for New Year’s Eve dinner in 2020 and are expecting it to surpass last year’s volumes this year.

Zomato recorded 60% higher sales on December 31, 2020, over 2019 New Year’s Eve. Its gross merchandise value last New Year’s Eve was ₹75 crore.

“War room ready for tonight. I hope AWS doesn’t run out of servers,” Goyal said in another tweet. “Big day today for the restaurant industry. Stay home, stay safe, and order away. We are ready to serve you.”

Responding to a user, Goyal said the company will hit more than 5,000 orders per minute “easily”.

“Aiming for much higher today,” Goyal said in yet another tweet.

Last year, Zomato had hit 4,254 orders per minute.

“No party tonight (hospitality industry is always working when everyone else is celebrating). It’s going to be a long workday today,” Goyal wrote.

Swiggy and Zomato have been preparing for this by expanding their delivery fleets, support and operations staff in anticipation of a record spike in volume.

With stricter curbs and night curfews across states following a spike in Covid-19 cases, most restaurants are doubling down on delivery efforts and their cloud kitchen formats as eating out sentiments get hit…