OpenRice is Our Website of the Month!

OpenRice is an online dining guide written by local people, with a comprehensive restaurant search engine and a platform for users to write reviews on restaurants they have visited. Founded in Hong Kong in 1999, OpenRice is now the city’s most popular place to find dining ideas and share dining experience. Since then, OpenRice has further established its’ presence in major cities across China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

We had a brief chat with Fanny Lim, OpenRice’s Assistant General Manager in Regional Business to talk more about the site.

Name : Fanny Lim
Position : Assistant General Manager, Regional Business
Site : www.openrice.com

Can you tell us a little about how OpenRice expanded into the SEA market?
We believe culinary pleasures transcend geographical boundaries and thus have taken our belief into the Mainland Chinese cities. Since then, we have launched local websites in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India and the Philippines. Next will be Taiwan to further encourage more people to share their gourmet experiences.

How are you different from the other food review sites out there?
We believe that everyone can be a gourmet; and that the same dining delight can be interpreted in many different ways. Our belief has developed into an online community where food-lovers get together to exchange information and share their preferences with others. This freedom of expression not only redefines dining enjoyment, but also creates a form of collective wisdom to rate and rank restaurants. These rankings also contribute to the annual OpenRice Best Restaurant Awards where we honor those eateries most loved by Hong Kong people in various categories.

Our carefully structured database allows users to swiftly and conveniently find a restaurant that suits their preferences. We also offer a vast variety of content and information that is constantly updated to meet user demands. To uphold the credibility of OpenRice, we have dedicated resources to read through every single review before releasing it to the public. Our search algorithm is also constantly refined to make sure our search result listing is in accordance to quality and popularity.

What are the main challenges faced by you in this highly dynamic online media ecosystem?
New entrants to the ecosystem brings forth unknown challenges. We are always on the lookout for new technological trends to deliver the most relevant and user-friendly experience and at the same time, review how other players are re-inventing the wheel.

What’s your best tip to the new publishers out there?
Work closely with Innity for expansion.