As the competition gets fierce in the online food ordering business, the Gurgaon-based Zomato has begun giving advertisements to some of the world's top porn sites to boost its income.
By doing so, Zomato has emerged as the first domestic consumer internet company to resort to such an advertising strategy.
The main idea behind serving advertisements on porn websites is to attract customers who watch porn at night. Zomato expects the ads on porn sites to increase its food delivery business during late night hours in big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru.
Besides, the cost to advertise on porn sites is much cheaper than on Google AdWords and Facebook Ads.
Zomato said the average cost per click (CPC) on porn sites would be "one-tenth of what it pays for Google AdWords and Facebook Ads."
"The alternative seemed almost obvious when someone said 'Hey we should try advertising on porn sites', and then justified it with 'look, people watch porn, and people get hungry, so stop judging me'," Pramod Rao, senior vice-president of growth at Zomato, wrote in a blogpost dated December 15.
Currently, Zomato is giving ads on porn sites such as Pornhub and XVideos on both mobile and desktop platforms from 11pm to 4am.
"Advertising on porn websites makes sense commercially," Business Standard quoted Harish Bijoor, a brand consultant, as saying.
"We are not a brand that goes and advertises on billboards and does sustained TV campaigns. We do it in bursts and we have always had a hunch that porn might work out, or do very well, with our target audience," Rao added.
