A while back I’d read about Burrp, which started out as a great restaurant reviews site, expanding into lifestyle events – Art, Dance, Fashion, Film, Fairs & Festivals, Theater, and so on. Check out the entire bunch here. They’d also added TV listings. While it’s quite a diversification, I thought it was quite in sync with what they were doing so far, but it also means that it broadens their competition.
Among the bunch in the link mentioned, I thought Yulop was a great package, with their services spread across web and mobile. Meanwhile, I’ve been coming across a lot of websites appearing in the restaurant based services space – Grubhogs , which has reviews, and already shows the beginning of an event calendar, and A Place to Dine, which, in addition to listings, also allows for online orders and table reservations, and services for restaurant owners from website setting up and hosting to loyalty programs. It even has mobile versions. A very interesting path.
I guess these new services ‘justify’ Burrp’s move into the events space, an expansion of the value proposition. I found some interesting associations here. Burrp has tie ups with Mirror (The Times Group) websites- Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. I also read today that Buzzintown has tied up with MyToday SMS services, to provide its users events related information on the mobile, in three cities.
There are some very cool happening in the events space. Buzzd , a service in the US allows the user to find and share local events on the mobile. They have recently tied up with Virgin to provide data to the operator’s subscribers. I’m not sure on how the numbers are for city based searches on mobile, but I wonder if Yulop, with all their services and info, could benefit by tying up with an Airtel/ Vodafone. While on local events, Placecast, which describes itself as “the world’s largest place-based interactive media company” has tied up with Eventful to produce some interesting location based advertising options. (via Mashable)
With the increasing usage of social networks, even events are finding their own long tails. So there are services which offer event planning for smaller groups. And while there are several event planning services available (including an Indian one called Funpiper), Doodle scores by having a facebook application that lets users collaborate on events. It also sends emails to non-Facebook users. Another service that stands out is Zipiko, which offers event planning on mobile.(via Center Networks)
But before we get there, I think there’s a lot of scope for city based social networks, especially the mobile version. I came across an interesting net based service – Fwix, which, in addition to the usual stuff, and integration with Twitter, Yelp, Flickr etc, shows you “the most relevant and trendy information and media in your local area. It aggregates about 500,000 news stories per day, and delivers roughly 2,000 relevant news stories of those 500,000.” (via Startup Meme). But i guess, that will take us back to this earlier post of mine.
until next time, text and the city
Thanks for the mention! It’s always a challenge for businesses to try and cast a wider net, while remaining true to what the brand might mean to a lot of our loyal user-base. Events was a natural extension of what the burrp! brand stands for in India – lifestyle! We appreciate your insight in the post and we’ll keep you tuned in to what’s happening next.
I personally think FOCUS is extremely important – especially as a startup. A very important lesson globally – Most “serious” startups fail not because of starvation (lack of funds), but because of indigestion (tried to do TOO much). Burrp started as a great place for restaurant reviews… as expansion they should continue their focus on “reviews” (hence their name) in lifestyle (or wherever) rather than in the space of providing new content. Yulop for instance, has good focus. In your list, I navigated to buzzintown.com for the first time. They seem to be a new entrant with a good depth and focus on entertainment alone. I hope it continues that way.
Deap: thanks for dropping in 🙂 yup, i think the extension works for me, and should for others too.
Dan: i’d agree partially with you.. but i’m not sure if global lessons turn out to be exactly true in the indian scenario.. in the case of Burrp, sometimes to get reviews done, you’ve to list it yourself first (adding content)..even in the case of food reviews, they do the listing first, and then get into reviews (a lot of restaurants listed on Burrp dont have reviews even now) which is ok… I agree completely on Yulop.. would love your views on something I’d written earlier (https://manuscrypts.com/brants/?p=100).. buzzintown is doing a good job so far on content, though it’d help if they reduced their page loading time a bit.. but having said all that, I really wouldn’t mind a one stop city portal that’d give me tips on ‘where to go’ and ‘what to do’..which is why I’m happy with Burrp’s expansion..thanks for the insights 🙂
Thanks for including Grubhogs.com on your list. Our website is only a few months old, in its infancy I guess, but the idea is to maintain focus around the food, entertainment and lifestyle arena as it grows. Your observation is very true though, in the last few months itself I have noticed even more mirror websites prop up and that seems to be create an urge to diversify to stand out. Do check back on Grubhogs.com and look forward to your insights and opinions.