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Zomato restaurant app arrives in Italy

(ANSA.IT)    08:19, March 13, 2015
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Created in India in 2008, covers 1 mn eateries in 22 countries

Rome, March 10 - The cafe just down road, Michelin-starred restaurants and wine bars are among the 18,000 listings in Rome and Milan now on the global app Zomato. The popular restaurant discovery website and mobile app provides information on over one million places to eat in 22 countries in the world, and has arrived in Italy in the run-up to Expo Milano 2015. Zomato intends to expand to other Italian cities and targets both tourists and residents. The country manager of Zomato Italia, 26-year-old Guk Kim, told ANSA about the launch and future scenarios. Korean by birth but in Italy since childhood, he began to work in the start-up world in secondary school. After getting his degree at John Cabot University, he founded several websites including Mobatar, FreePoverty.com and Cibando. "In December," he said, "Zomato acquired Cibando and it has been a 'crazy race' since then. We have gone down every single street and alleyway in Milan and Rome, dividing the maps into sections. The outlying areas were explored initially by bicycle and then street by street. Every place was examined to make the geographical coordinates and the map, the digitized menu, several photos of the place and different dishes for many search categories - from price to type of cuisine - available to all users." There are also country-specific 'collections' regularly updated to discover the latest in the field, such as 'Vista Mozzafiato' (Breathtaking View'), 'Una Pizza in Compagnia' ('A Pizza with Friends') and 'Ristoranti da Film' ('Restaurants from Films'). This neutral base is then added to by foodies' reviews and votes. "The philosophy of the service," Guk Kim continued, "is that of a group of friends to whom you can ask 'Where can I get a good Carbonara?'. Zomato offers this but only with information, not stars or judgements. We will check on the information by visiting all the places again in three months.

The restaurant world is in constant ferment. Menus change with the season, opening hours change and there are closings and new openings." The launch of the portal and mobile app (available for free for iOS, Android and Windows Phone in Italian and 8 other languages) is only the first step. "Over the next two years the company will invest 6 million dollars to make its business grow and become the top restaurant search service in Italy. Its 25-member team will triple by the end of the year and rise to 200 by the end of 2016," he added. Created for fun in 2008 in India by founders Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, in 7 months Zomato has racked up seven acquisitions across the world: Cibando in Italy, ManuMania in New Zealand, Lunchtime.cz in the Czech Republic, Gastronauci in Poland, Mekanist in Turkey and Urbanspoon in the US.

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(Editor:Gao Yinan,Yao Chun)

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