After spending much of 2024 in a public spat with Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal over the company’s failure to address customer issues and faulty product deliveries, comedian Kunal Kamra started 2025 by taking a shot at the quick commerce industry.
Being based across major cities and offering doorstep, quick grocery as well as house-hold good delivery on orders, all with the recent successful growth experienced for Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart, then adding Zepto within the lot in the midst, Kamra presented the other angle or viewpoint of his apprehensions which deals concerning about the people getting exploited such gig workers through deliveries.
Kamra’s criticism began on New Year’s Eve when Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa shared the platform’s order stats, including 1.2 lakh packs of condoms and 45,000 bottles of mineral water being delivered. However, Kamra shifted his attention to the income of Blinkit’s “delivery partners” by posing, “Can you also enlighten us with data on the average wages you paid your ‘Delivery Partners’ in 2024…”
Can you also enlighten us with data on the average wages you paid your “Delivery Partners” in 2024… https://t.co/v0yBlvobCQ
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) December 31, 2024
He used the term “delivery partners” in quotes to highlight how fast commerce platforms, including Blinkit, Swiggy, and Zomato, classify their workers as independent contractors rather than employees, avoiding the obligations associated with employee status, like fair salaries and medical benefits.
Kamra further elaborated on his concerns by tweeting about the exploitation of gig workers. He wrote, “While we enjoy the convenience of quick commerce, I’d like my first tweet of 2025 to be about the dark side,” explaining that platform owners exploit workers while claiming to be job creators. Kamra compared the CEOs of such companies to “landlords without owning any land,” stating, “They don’t have a bone of creativity or innovation; all they do is exploit people by offering them freedom they can’t afford while giving them wages that can’t meet their aspirations.
He further blamed these CEOs for being “thugs,” for without regulations, they can continue milking the sweat from workers’ brows. Kamra concluded: “They are thugs that are using data as oil without paying for the oil fields. Someday there will be regulation that humbles them…”
While we enjoy the convenience of quick commerce I’d like my first tweet of 2025 to be about the dark side.
Platform owners exploit gig workers & they aren’t job creators.
They are landlords without owning any land.
They don’t have a bone of creativity or innovation all…
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) December 31, 2024
The tweet picked up very soon, garnering more than 1.9 lakh views. Many users agreed with Kamra’s stance. One X user, Ganeshan, said, “Blinkit, Zepto, Zomato, Swiggy. All of them. Zero creativity- only exploitation. The delivery workers are stretched to a great extent for compensation that is not justified at all. 10 mins delivery isn’t a landmark thing tbh. It’s sheer exploitation of humanity to satisfy the ego & whims of the buyer.”
CA Akhil Agarwal: “Studies indicate that more than 50 percent of gig workers earn below minimum wage after taking into account costs, while platforms continue to score billions in valuation.”
