HungryGoWhere

HungryGoWhere
Subsidiary of SingTel
Industry Business ratings and reviews
Founded 2006
Headquarters Singapore
Products Web-based food guide
Website Singapore site Malaysia site

HungryGoWhere is a food and restaurant review website, founded by Dennis Goh, Wong Hoong An and Tan Yung Yih in 2004 and since been acquired by Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) in May 2012.[1] The food portal has food and culinary guides, along with user-generated reviews of restaurants and dishes.[2] Users can search food based on criteria like price range, cuisine, and location.[3] It has online presence in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia and Australia.[4]

History

The HungryGoWhere site started in 2006,[5] as a platform for users to gather information on F&B establishments and a portal where F&B establishments can grow their profile.[3] HungryGoWhere was initially operated by GTW Holdings Private Limited (GTW).[6] In May 2012, SingTel acquired 100 percent of GTW Holdings Private Limited (GTW), and announced and that its operations to merge with inSing.com, which is also a SingTel subsidiary.[7] The acquisition is part of Singapore's growth strategy to expand its hyper-local service.[7]

Locations

HungryGoWhere Singapore

HungryGoWhere Singapore is currently integrated with inSing.com, which now registers a total of over two million users, making it one of the largest food and lifestyle site in Singapore.[8] It also has a restaurant reservation system, which allows users to instantly reserve seats in restaurants without having to call in.[9] In October 2013, the HungryGoWhere mobile app recorded 600,000 downloads with 100,000 monthly active users. Samsung phones sold by SingTel will find the app preinstalled in their phones.[10]

HungryGoWhere Malaysia

HungryGoWhere launched in the Malaysia market officially on 24 August 2013. It made its entry by setting a Guinness World Record with the longest line of Nasi Lemak Bunkus, which is Malaysia's national dish.[11] The event took place at the ice-skating rink of Sunway Pyramid shopping mall, where the Guinness World Record adjudicator, Carim Valerio, verified that there were 11,315 packets of nasi lemak, making it a world record.[12] Nora Danish, popular actress and model in Malaysia was there to grace the event.[11] The HungryGoWhere Malaysia site has a different user interface from HungryGoWhere Singapore. Besides being able to search for restaurants and food based on cuisine, eatery type, and price, users can search for food based on halal listings.[13] SingTel partnered with Nara Logics, a Cambridge firm to provide better personalized search and curation of web data to improve the restaurants recommendations engine.[14] This gives users a tailored list of dining recommendations from over 35,000 restaurants throughout the country.[15] Interaction with the site is also gamified, where users are credited points and badges when taking certain actions within the site. For example, sharing photos of food can earn you a "Shutterbug" badge, and writing reviews of Thai food makes the user a "Thai food expert".[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "SingTel Acquires HungryGoWhere.com for S$12M (US$9.4M)". Techinasia.com. 2012-05-22. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  2. ↑ "GTW Holdings". Nia.sg. 2012-12-27. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "In Conversation with Wong Hoong An, co-founder of HungryGoWhere". Techinasia.com. 2009-10-20. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  4. ↑ "SingTel continues shopping spree, acquires HungryGoWhere for US$9.4M". Techinasia.com. 2012-05-22. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  5. ↑ "HungryGoWhere lets you stuff yourself silly on a budget with HungryDeals". E27.co. 2010-12-01. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  6. ↑ "GTW Holdings Private Limited: Private Company Information - Businessweek". Investing.businessweek.com. 2012-05-25. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "SingTel acquires HungryGoWhere to re-shape culinary experiences across Asia - SingTel". Info.singtel.com. 2012-05-22. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  8. ↑ "After SingTel Acquisition, New Site Under HungryGoWhere Brand Will Be Launched". Techinasia.com. 2012-05-31. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  9. ↑ "HungryGoWhere announces online reservation service". E27.co. 2013-03-16. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  10. ↑ "inSing CEO: HungryGoWhere still going places after acquisition". Techinasia.com. 2013-10-02. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "HungryGoWhere launches new Malaysian service with world record serving of national dish nasi lemak". Guinness World Records. 2013-08-30. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  12. ↑ "Food portal enters record book for feat - Community | The Star Online". Thestar.com.my. 2013-08-28. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  13. ↑ "HungryGoWhere Malaysia – Your Kaki Makan on the App Store on iTunes". Itunes.apple.com. 2014-01-23. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  14. ↑ "Could Nara's human-like search boost HungryGoWhere's relevance?". E27.co. 2013-08-02. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  15. ↑ "Nara Logics, Inc. Announces New Enterprise Solution for Web Personalization - Yahoo Finance". Finance.yahoo.com. 2013-11-07. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  16. ↑ "AI-fuelled HungryGoWhere? Malaysia, where else?". Digital News Asia. Retrieved 2014-03-01.