“Those who tell the stories rule society,” Greek philosopher Plato said centuries ago. The line still holds true in the 21st century, especially for corporations that can shape and control narratives.

Yesterdqay, Swiggy pushed back against a report claiming that Instamart was losing market share to Zepto, after the publication cited an internal HSBC memo.

The HSBC note suggested shifts in the quick commerce leaderboard, but Swiggy said Redseer had confirmed it shared no data with either HSBC or the publication, calling the reported numbers “baseless” and “misleading.”

This is not the first time it has happened, and neither will it be the last time. In the past couple of years, Zepto and Swiggy have claimed the second position in the ever-intense quick commerce market in India.

For Zepto, it was HSBC this time, Motiwal Oswal in November last year. While for Swiggy Instamart, Axis Capital and Bernstein have remained positive, when it comes to market share maths.

However, one must ask, what is the criteria behind these market share reports? What decides that one company is performing better than its rival, especially when one of these companies is privately listed and not much is known about them yet.

Reading Between The Lines

Very few people outside of market research firms and their paying clients understand how such reports are created. Indeed, many such reports are paid for by companies, as one analyst told us.

Others said market share estimates in Indian quick commerce are not scientific measurements, they’re approximations built from incomplete and often biased fragments of data.

Analysts lack access to internal order volumes, GMV, SKU-level data, or city-level splits unless a company chooses to disclose them.

None of the major players—Zepto, Blinkit, or Swiggy Instamart—publish the granular data needed........

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