‘Every doorbell ring is a reminder of systemic inequality,’ Deepinder Goyal says gig economy shattered “invisibility” of poor labourers

In a strikingly candid reflection, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal shared on social media that the debate around the gig economy is not merely about wages, algorithms, or labour law.

Deepinder Goyal says gig economy triggers guilt in many

It is about visibility and the guilt that visibility triggers. For most of human history, inequality survived comfortably behind walls. Factory workers laboured out of sight, farmers tilled distant land, and domestic help remained confined to kitchens and backrooms.

Meanwhile, the wealthy consumed the outcomes of labour without encountering the labourer. Distance insulated conscience.

According to the Zomato boss, the gig economy dismantled that insulation at scale.

“Suddenly, the poor aren't hidden away,” Goyal wrote on X. “They're at your doorstep: the delivery partner handing over your ₹1000+ biryani, late-night groceries, or quick-commerce essentials.”

“You see them in the rain, heat, traffic, often on borrowed bikes, working 8–10 hours for earnings that give them sustenance. You see their exhaustion, their polite smile masking frustration with life in general,” he added.

Deepinder Goyal reasoned that the food deliveryman is now a person we look at, speak to, and often uncomfortably avoid looking at. 

“This is the first time in history at this scale that the working class and consuming class interact face-to-face, transaction after transaction,” the Zomato founder remarked. 

In the candid post, Deepinder Goyal claimed that much of the outrage around gig work is not rooted purely in concern for workers, but in the emotional reckoning it forces upon consumers.

When you realise that your convenience may equal someone else’s entire day’s earnings after fuel, rentals, and platform cuts, inequality stops being theoretical. 

“We tip awkwardly, or avoid eye contact, because the inequality is no longer abstract. It's personal,” he reasoned.

Goyal went on warning against a seductive but dangerous impulse to solve discomfort by restoring invisibility.

He said that banning gig work or over-regulating it until the model collapses does not create safer, formal jobs overnight. It erases livelihoods. 

The entrepreneur explained that demand falls, prices rise, and workers are pushed back into informal cash economies where protections are weaker, and accountability is minimal.

“The gig economy just exposed the reality of inequality to the people who previously had the luxury of not seeing it,” Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal said. “The doorbell is not the problem. The question is what we do after opening the door,” he added.

According to him, visibility is the price of progress. One path uses that visibility to improve lives. The other, he said, lets the privileged feel virtuous again, comfortably and quietly, in the dark.

Last one on this topic, and I have been holding this in myself for a while.

For centuries, class divides kept the labor of the poor invisible to the rich. Factory workers toiled behind walls, farmers in distant fields, domestic help in backrooms. The wealthy consumed the fruits…

— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) January 2, 2026

Also read: ‘Champagne Socialist…Aam Aadmi my foot,’ Sanjeev Bikhchandani takes a dig at Raghav Chadha, backs Deepinder Goyal, defending gig economy (startuppedia.in)