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Zomato launches India's first crowd-supported weather infrastructure
Foodtech giant Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal, who is also a Shark Tank India judge, in a recent post on X (formerly Twitter) announced the launch of India's first crowd-supported weather infrastructure, WeatherUnion.com.
With a proprietary network of over 650 on-ground weather stations, Weatherunion is the largest private infrastructure of its kind in the country.
It provides localised, real-time information on key weather parameters such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, and rainfall.
According to Goyal, Weatherunion is available across 45 large cities and will expand to other Indian cities soon.
Notably, Zomato has partnered with the Center for Atmospheric Sciences (CAS) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi for development of the system, and expects more institutions and companies to benefit from this initiative.
"This rich data holds significant potential in unlocking weather use cases for enterprises and research institutes. Having already collaborated with CAS - IIT Delhi, we expect more institutions and companies to benefit from this and contribute towards the greater good of our economy," Goyal wrote.
Excited to unveil India's first crowd-supported weather infrastructure, https://t.co/pUhhX8zKMe. A proprietary network of 650+ on-ground weather stations, it is the largest private infrastructure of its kind in our country.
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) May 8, 2024
These weather stations, developed by Zomato, provide… pic.twitter.com/lc5XQJJtO2
"At Zomato, it was crucial for us to have access to precise and real-time weather information to make the right business decisions to serve our customers better. Hence, we took it upon ourselves to develop a solution capable of empowering us on this front," he wrote.
Interestingly, Zomato is offering free access to this weather data through an API to all institutions and companies in the country. However, the company might ask for money if the server usage gets higher.
"But of course, if the server costs of your API usage are super high, and you are an enterprise customer, we might contact you to pay some amount to continue using the API," as mentioned in Weatherunion.
Goyal, in a post on X, said that multiple companies and public institutions should use real-time weather data to boost the productivity of the Indian economy.
"We believe that this data is too valuable to keep to ourselves or to monetise; therefore, as a Zomato Giveback, we are opening up access to this data to everyone for public good. Multiple companies and public institutions should use real-time weather data, to boost the productivity of our economy," Goyal said.
Goyal said that Zomato employees have hosted weather stations at their homes.
"As we look forward to further expanding this infrastructure, we welcome volunteers who want to provide us space on their premises to install these weather stations and contribute to nation building," Goyal added.