Zomato has announced, that it is shutting down UrbanSpoon, the U.S. based restaurant discovery platform which Zomato bought by reportedly shedding off over $50 Million in January this year. All of UrbanSpoon’s traffic will now be migrated to Zomato’s app.
The move, which was in making ever since Zomato announced the acquisition, would now result in over two-thirds of its traffic coming via users of UrbanSpoon. With UrbanSpoon’s acquisition, Zomato experienced an immediate major expansion into the U.S. and European markets, something which would have been unachievable if Zomato had gone for a standalone approach.
Zomato has also detailed out certain changes which regular UrbanSpoon users would experience, in order to make their transition smoother. Features on UrbanSpoon have either been discontinued or been translated to Zomato’s in-app features using appropriate calculations.
UrbanSpoon’s Like/Dsilike feature, for example, has been converted to Zomato’s 5-point rating scale. Percentage scores from Urbanspoon have been translated into 5-point scores on Zomato, and Likes/Dislikes from users’ profiles have been moved over to Zomato as ‘Positive’ and ‘Negative’.
One of the more bigger changes for UrbanSpoon users will be the discontinuation of multiple-reviewing system. Zomato explains,
We believe that the most recent experience you’ve had at a restaurant is the most relevant one.
While users on Urbanspoon had the choice of giving multiple reviews for a restaurant, they will now have to do with one review per restaurant, a feature which Zomato has employed in apps across all of its other markets. Multiple reviews for the same restaurant from Urbanspoon have been merged into one, broken down by date of submission.
Zomato however is offering you the option to edit that single merged review to reflect the most recent experience you’ve had at that restaurant.
As for newer features, UrbanSpoon Zomato users in the U.S. will now experience its popular ‘Timeline’ feature, which helps you keep track of all the places you eat at, with chronologically sorted reviews, photos, and check-ins. And yes, it is Dineline ‘Been There’ now.
As for SpoonBacks, that feature is being kept alive, albeit in a different avatar. While Spoonbacks are still active, Zomato requires blog posts to be published manually, and a rating to be added to each one, before posts can appear on restaurant pages. You can now also attack pictures to the same to make your review blog more interactive.
