India’s retail media networks turning into walled gardens?

Here’s a fun thought experiment: Imagine if you actually still went to your neighbourhood kirana store (the one with the constantly changing carousel of cashiers) and it not only remembered your regular biscuit brand but also showed you a personalised ad for it as soon as you walked in. Now add a few zeros, digitize the whole setup, plug it into real-time inventory systems, and boom — you’ve got the idea behind what Swiggy, Zepto, and Blinkit are building. And yes, these homegrown players might just end up giving Meta and Google some serious competition in the garden of walled data. Some day.

Zepto’s ad engine, Jarvis, has already crossed an eye-watering annualized advertising revenue of Rs 1,000 crore (roughly $120 million) in 2024, clocking in over Rs 83 crore a month. Blinkit isn’t far behind, with projections placing its ad revenue in the same Rs 1,000 crore league for the current financial year. Meanwhile, Swiggy’s Self Serve Ads have become a vital part of the platform's monetization strategy, contributing to its total H1 FY25 revenue of $750 million (Rs 6,300 crore), with 17.1 million monthly transacting users to boot.

These platforms all fall under the umbrella of retail media networks (RMNs), though they’re still evolving in scale and sophistication. They let brands—especially in FMCG—advertise directly to consumers using first-party data and real-time purchase behavior, typically through sponsored listings, banners, or promoted search. Swiggy’s offering is the most mature, with a self-serve platform covering both Instamart and restaurant visibility. Zepto’s Jarvis is an internal tech stack powering targeted placements, while Blinkit offers brand partnerships for visibility, albeit with less transparency.

In a world where attention is currency, these quick-commerce platforms are banking big on first-party data, frequent user touchpoints, and controlled ad experiences. And they're doing so with the finesse of seasoned gatekeepers.

“I feel these platforms are indeed developing into self-contained ecosystems,” says Gopa Menon, Chief Growth Officer at Successive Digital. “They possess valuable purchase intent and transaction data that traditional platforms don't have. This allows for closed-loop attribution and vertical integration across service categories like groceries, food delivery, and health.”

So yes, they are starting to look suspiciously like walled gardens. The term, made famous by Big Tech, refers to closed digital ecosystems where the platform owns and controls every piece of the puzzle—data, inventory, attribution, and audience access. Meta, with a gross advertising revenue of Rs 22,730 crore in India (FY24), and Google, with Rs 31,221 crore in ad revenue, have long ruled these gated kingdoms. Globally, they're pulling in over $161 billion and $265 billion respectively.

The largest walled gardens currently dominate digital advertising, with Google commanding about 40% of global digital ad spend alone. By 2027, these walled gardens are expected to account for 83% of global digital advertising revenue. Meanwhile, the open internet's share of digital ad expenditure is expected to decrease from about 22% in 2023 to 17% by 2027.

That being said, the RMNs of India may be smaller ponds, but they’re increasingly filled with valuable, exclusive fish.

“Platforms like Swiggy and Zepto are giving rise to new ‘mini’ walled gardens,” says Sanjay Krishnamurthy, President at GALE India. “They leverage rich behavioral and transactional data to serve highly personalized ads. It mirrors what Meta and Amazon began years ago, and what Google has mastered across the web; but the regulatory framework here hasn't caught up.”

And that, right there, is the kicker. These RMNs sit in a peculiar regulatory gray zone. There’s no clear oversight on data retention, algorithmic nudging, or persuasion tactics. As Krishnamurthy warns, “We risk slipping into a world of machine-driven invisible nudges—where personalization crosses into coercion.”

But let's not paint a dystopian picture just yet. There's nuance here. First-party data allows for cleaner attribution models, better ROI, and fewer data leaks. Brands, especially performance-driven ones, love that. Tejas Maha, Group Head - Media at White Rivers Media, explains, “This targeted approach makes these platforms increasingly attractive to advertisers seeking measurable results and more efficient ad spend.”

It's not hard to see why advertisers are jumping ship from traditional media. With Blinkit seeing a unique visitor spike of 81% (up to 20.2 million) and Zepto growing 188% year-over-year (now 38.2 million users), you're looking at massive, high-intent audiences that are deeply embedded in the transaction funnel. Forget the top-of-funnel brand awareness play—this is performance nirvana.

However, there are ecosystem-level concerns. “Ad spending is shifting from traditional digital channels to these retail media networks,” Menon points out. “This reduces the revenue available to support open internet content. Data is being centralized rather than distributed, and new power centers are emerging.”

The more these platforms consolidate data, the harder it becomes for brands to run cross-platform campaigns or compare metrics. There’s no unified standard for audience segmentation, performance metrics, or attribution. “Advertisers often need bespoke strategies for each platform,” says Krishnamurthy. “This increases operational overhead, limits transparency, and reinforces digital fragmentation.”

And while fragmentation may sound like a bad word, it can also be a sign of digital evolution., with Krishnamurthy saying he doesn’t see this as inherently good or bad for the open Internet—it’s more of an evolution.

“Rather than a single monolithic internet, we're moving toward multiple interconnected but distinct digital environments,” agrees Menon, adding, “Consumers are choosing convenience and integrated experiences, which is driving this evolution.”

It’s eerily similar to what happened in physical retail. From open markets to department stores to hyper-curated malls—control moved upstream. “Digital commerce seems to be following similar patterns of aggregation and control, just at hyperspeed,” Menon notes.

According to the Pitch Madison Advertising Report 2025, digital advertising in India experienced a 14% growth in 2024, reaching ?45,292 crore. Notably, advertising on e-retail platforms accounted for ?11,293 crore, representing 22.93% of total digital media spends—a clear indicator of the burgeoning influence of RMNs.

So where does that leave the open web and independent publishers? Probably somewhere between hopeful innovation and declining ad budgets. Maha believes the rise of RMNs “isn’t an existential threat to the open internet,” but he warns of “a more concentrated digital space, where a few larger players have a bigger share of the opportunities.”

The balance, he says, lies in preserving openness while allowing RMNs to innovate. Think data portability, interoperability, and perhaps even universal measurement frameworks—though none of those are remotely standard today.

In a landscape that’s becoming less about channels and more about ecosystems, the rules of engagement are being rewritten. RMNs are now not just media channels but full-stack consumer platforms. From discovery to decision to delivery, they're managing the entire consumer journey—with your data powering it all.

And that brings us to a rather sobering truth. As Krishnamurthy puts it, “The convenience offered by these 'mini' walled gardens could come at the cost of individual agency and a less transparent digital experience for all.”

In short, yes, retail media networks are becoming the new walled gardens. They just have better packaging, faster delivery, and much fresher dhania.