Restaurant Discovery App Foodspotting Acquired for $10 Million by Online Reservation Service OpenTable

Given the explosive popularity of sharing food photos online, the digital restaurant reservation service OpenTable has purchased the food-focused photo app Foodspotting for $10 million. OpenTable redefined the way people make restaurant reservations today and now the leading service is striving to leverage the mass appeal of showcasing restaurant dishes online. TheNextWeb.com reported on how sharing photographs of food has made diners and restaurants hungry for more.

With this recent acquisition, OpenTable plans to bring diners a better visual and social experience while offering restaurants many new opportunities to display their menu selections to a huge digital audience.

“While working with OpenTable as partners we realized we could create more intelligent, seamless and beautiful experiences if we had the opportunity to integrate our products more deeply,” said Alexa Andrzejewski, co-founder and chief executive officer of Foodspotting. “We look forward to contributing our mobile, social and design expertise in ways that will delight both diners and restaurants.”

Foodspotting will remain a standalone app, but this partnership will enhance and streamline the process of making online restaurant reservations by enabling users to first discover the dishes and restaurants they crave, and then allowing them to instantly make reservations through OpenTable’s online service.

This partnership appears to be a perfect pairing and just another example of how OpenTable is striving to maintain its market leadership by providing greater value to its users. For example, OpenTable recently collaborated with Foursquare to allow its users to make restaurant reservations directly through the location-based app.

There’s no denying the growing popularity of sharing food photos online. In fact, this hot trend of taking food photos with smartphones and digital cameras and then instantly posting them online is commonly called “foodstagram.”

But now, many New York City restaurants are trying to crack down on this photo phenomenon by asking diners to stop photographing their restaurant meals. According to ABCNews.com, some restaurant operators claim that the photo flashes bother other diners, while others say the practice infringes on the privacy and dining experience of their patrons.

Despite the scorn of some restaurants, diners are hungrier than ever to photograph their food and share it online with friends. With OpenTable’s recent acquisition of Foodspotting and the ever-increasing popularity of such “social food porn,” it looks like diners will have exciting new ways to satisfy their cravings for more.

To discover how creative restaurant marketing can capture your audience’s attention, contact MDG.

MDG is a full-service advertising agency and one of the top Florida marketing companies, with offices in Boca Raton and New York, NY. MDG’s 360° integrated marketing strategy uses just the right mix of traditional and digital to reach your goals. While some industries may fare better in print and others online, we strive to create a balanced approach where traditional and digital marketing efforts support each other and your marketing message is tailored to the medium. To stay on top of the latest market trends for restaurants, contact MDG to view some of our creative restaurant marketing work.