Zomato Press Release: Bringing restaurants to the Digital Age

Today is the age of Internet, our way of life has been modernized by having access to different information easier and faster with just a click away. Internet has now become a basic part of our everyday lives for such people would go online to research for different options before making a decision like deciding where to eat.

For that fact, Food entrepreneurs took advantage of what Internet can do for them. Nowadays, the food industry has been investing their time and effort in making and nourishing to become visible digitally to be able to promote their services and goods online. The web has different opportunities to reach more wider audiences, promoting their business has never been effective and efficient.

Just like according to Zomato, which is an online and mobile restaurant search and discovery service that having websites and social media accounts that allows restaurants to create more thrill or chatter in the online space.

“If you are visible online, especially on Zomato, the searcher will eventually find you, out of a great number of restaurants within an area,” says Anton Ojeda, Zomato Philippines country manager. “By the time you’re shortlisted, it will just depend on the food preference of the searcher to choose you.”

It is like hitting two birds with one stone for the food industry when you are digitally visible.

Anton Ojeda also adds that being digital presence does not only promote a brand, it also opens the communication line between restaurants and their patrons. “Being present in the digital space is not just about letting people know about your brand. It is about reaching out to them,” Ojeda said.

Through different consumer's comments and feedbacks, restaurants are fully informed of how consumer find their foods and services. Thanks to social media, consumers can also freely talk about what they think about a particular restaurant whether it's negative or positive.

Zomato also found out that reviews made by food bloggers as well as everyday diners can play an important part on where to pick out a place to eat. “Filipinos have the habit of researching about a restaurant before actually eating there, and they rely on reviews they find in the Internet,” states Ojeda.

Negative feedback through social media should be taken seriously by restaurant owners.“In Zomato, restaurant owners can reply to bad reviews,” shares Ojeda. “You’d be surprised how seriously they take these reviews and how quickly they would take actions to address them. And even those with a lot of good reviews would reassess their operations after just one negative feedback from a user.”

Commonly, if you are digitally visible, then it would be play an important part in the success of the any food industry. It can either make or break the business. One just really needs to be wise enough to take advantage of its benefits, and use any negativity as a catalyst to make the venture grow.

Building a restaurant and promoting brands through online will be one of the topics in the first local Zomato Restaurant Summit to be held on May 19. The event, which has the theme Conquering the Digital Age, will bring together restaurateurs and foodies to talk about how restaurants can level up their games in the digital stage. Other topics include the evolution of Philippine restaurants and food tourism. For more information about the Summit, visit https://www.facebook.com/ZomatoSummit.

About Zomato

Zomato (http://www.zomato.com/) is an online and mobile restaurant search and discovery service, providing in-depth information for over one million restaurants across 22 countries. Zomato's core content features include menus, photos, and geocoded coordinates for restaurants. It currently serves over 80 million monthly visitors globally.

Zomato was founded in 2008 by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. The company is present in over 100 cities across India, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, UAE, South Africa, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, Brazil, Chile, Turkey, Indonesia, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, and Qatar. Zomato recently acquired Urbanspoon, marking its entry into the United States and Australia.