Bengaluru, July 29 -- Rapido's food delivery platform Ownly is betting that cheaper food delivery, not higher commissions, will be the next growth driver for India's online food delivery market, with the company prioritizing new customers and restaurant sign-ups over gross order value (GOV).

"The key metric we're chasing in the near term is bringing more customers online and onboarding more restaurants," Aravind Sanka, Rapido's co-founder and head of Ownly, told Mint.

Affordability should drive higher repeat purchases, ordering frequency and retention, making conventional metrics such as GOV less relevant for a platform that does not charge restaurant commissions, he added.

Ownly's strategy marks a departure from the playbook adopted b...