MediaNama’s Take:
The introduction of Bites inside Dineout shows that Swiggy is no longer treating restaurant discovery as a static listing issue. A vertical short-video surface inside a dining reservation product now directs which restaurants users notice, how visibility shifts, and what costs restaurants may end up bearing to stay competitive. Importantly, short-video formats command far more attention than static listings, giving the platform greater control over what gets amplified and what gets ignored.
Moreover, when platform-produced clips, curated videos, and restaurant uploads appear on the same surface, the absence of clear labels can blur the lines between editorial, promotional, and organic content. This becomes especially relevant because Swiggy has been experimenting with new monetisation paths across product lines and has recently signalled a shift toward stronger control through Instamart’s planned inventory-led model.
Bites could therefore become a prominent influence surface inside Dineout. However, without clearly defined rules for uploads, moderation, ranking, and disclosures, the feature raises questions about fairness, transparency, and the evolving balance of power between independent restaurants and larger chains that can invest in professionally-produced videos. And these governance issues will matter even more as video-led restaurant discovery features scale their operations.
What’s the news
Swiggy has begun rolling out Bites, a vertical short-video feed inside its Dineout app that lets users scroll through restaurant clips in a reels-style format. The feature is currently visible in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Notably, Inc42 first reported the development, with MediaNama subsequently confirming the presence of Bites on the Dineout app.
The videos appearing on the feed are mixed. Some carry a “Servd by Swiggy” label, while others do not: indicating that both platform-curated and restaurant-uploaded content currently appears on the same platform. However, Swiggy has not issued any details explaining how these videos are sourced, moderated, ranked, or disclosed.
Notably, this is the first time a major Indian food delivery company has integrated a video discovery format inside a restaurant booking product. The introduction of Bites therefore creates a new promotional layer within Dineout, potentially affecting how restaurants compete for visibility.
What Bites looks like today
Inside the Dineout interface, the Bites tab opens to a full-screen vertical viewer similar to short-video feeds on social platforms. Users swipe vertically to move between clips. Some videos include a “Servd by Swiggy” tag at the top, while others appear without any label.
According to the LinkedIn page for Servd, it operates as a Swiggy-run digital publication and creative agency, which apparently indicates that at least some of the tagged videos are produced by Swiggy’s own content…
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