Friday, August 13, 2010

Recommendation

Recommendation

1) Since Zagat is mostly directing customers to restaurants. We propose that these restaurant should direct both current Zagat and non Zagat members to use and continue to use Zagat review and online applications. These restaurants can provide discount for customers to download and use the Zagat mobile application.

2) Zagat can provide a membership card for customers to collect points when dining at Zagat rated services and gain points to give quality reviews. Customers will have the incentive to participate in the review and also get to discount in Zagat rated services. Zagat can collect data and personalize with these customers.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

WHAT ARE ZAGAT’S TOOLS AND HOW ZAGAT EXPLOIT DIGITAL MARKETING?

WHAT ARE ZAGAT’S TOOLS AND HOW ZAGAT EXPLOIT DIGITAL MARKETING?

Zagat originally was a simple restaurant review company that used paper in surveying people in the 1980’s. With the evolution of the internet, Zagat has expanded their limited traditional channels in receiving surveys to a more digital and global channel. Zagat uses several digital marketing platforms such as their website, foursquare, twitter, facebook, and mobile phones.

1) Website:

On the website, everybody can participate in writing comments, reviews, and tips for a particular restaurant. Although there is a small fee to be a Zagat member, but there are some advantages that stems from it. First is that the fee acts as a quality control in filtering better comments because users have to pay for it. Second, it becomes a good source of revenue.

2) Foursquare:

Zagat has partnered with Four Square platform to synchronize the restaurant tip adding and offer a special badge for checking in Zagat’s registered restaurant.

Source: http://foursquare.com/zagat

3) Twitter:

Zagat uses Twitter as a “buzz” to inform followers on latest restaurant openings, closings, trends, deals and more.

Source: http://twitter.com/ZAGATBUZZ

4) Facebook:

Zagat also captures the Facebook channel to provide more interaction with reviewers. Pictures uploaded on Facebook can also persuade people to go dine.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/Zagat

4) Mobile:

Zagat provides Zagat application downloadable on:

Interested users can use this universal application in their mobile phone to locate new restaurants and get access to reviews and opinions. “Zagat content is perfectly suited for the mobile platform. With our products you'll search for restaurants nearby when you're on the go, then read restaurants' ratings and reviews which fit conveniently on small mobile screens. We offer a mobile website and a series of downloadable applications tailored to individual tastes and a variety of mobile platforms.”

Zagat in Korea Example

Zagat restaurant guide comes to Seoul

Zagat finally comes to Korea and the best in food, decor, service and popularity come up empty for Korean restaurants

Hanopolis | 1:39pm, Fri, Jan 29, 2010 | Comments (5)

It's curious that as an international restaurant guide covering over 100 countries, it has only now made its virgin debut into Korea, being only the third Asian country to be covered by the publication and Seoul, the 10th Asian city.

As large and diverse as Asia is, it seems Zagat has heretofore found it fitting to concentrate its gastronomical attentions elsewhere - about a hundred places elsewhere, to be more exact.

Anyhow, from this perch, the results of the survey does not seem to be particularly flattering to the the Korean food scene. As much as the Korean government has tried to promote Hansik abroad, it seems they need to begin at home first, because if the diners who took part in Zagat's reviews are any guide, the best places to dine out in Seoul may not be Korean. Or perhaps we're being unduly harsh and jumping to conclusions; it's possible many Korean restaurants fall just below the best (under the categories revealed below), which are foreign.

Guide to Seoul Restaurants

According to the Korea Herald, "Zagat and HyundaiCard joined forces to carry out the complex and arduous task of drawing up a list of restaurants to be surveyed before recruiting 4,398 diners (35 percent in their 20s, 55 percent in their 30s, 10 percent aged 40 and over) to rate the food, service and decor of the establishments on a 30-point scale."

"Zagat's field researchers and local editors drew up a list of 500 restaurants and a committee formed by HyundaiCard submitted a list of 2,000 restaurants," a HyundaiCard representative explained over the phone, the Herald said. "The list was combined and reduced to around 300 restaurants, which were then surveyed."

The project took about a year and a half.

"Our 2010 Seoul restaurant survey covers 287 of the city's top restaurants as voted on by almost 4,400 local diners who rated and reviewed each of these restaurants, voting on ZAGAT.com," said Tim Zagat, founder. "In addition to Korean cuisine, the dining scene in Seoul is vibrant with global influences. The diversity of Seoul restaurants is evident by looking at some of the top winners."

The Winners

Based on the ratings of local Seoul residents, the top winners for food, decor, service and popularity were the following:

• Best Food: (Italian) Ristorante Eo, in Cheongdam-dong

• Best Decor: (French fusion) Naos Nova

• Best Service: (French) Shilla Hotel's Continental

• Most Popular: (Indian) Ganga

There you have it; not a single Korean restaurant in sight, at least in these categories. Perhaps some Korean restaurants pop up somewhere under the "best food" category winner as runner-ups - who knows. But subjectively, we doubt it.

Of course, within the Korean food category, some Korean restaurants came up winners. For instance, Bamboo House, Myongwolgwan, Woolaeok and Yongsusan were so-called "top-rated restaurants" in the "Korean food category".

Still, though the details are sketchy, it's a bit of an embarrassment. Hansik, perhaps, needs to begin at home. If Koreans themselves do not appreciate their own cuisine, how can they expect anyone else to?

http://hanopolis.com/?articleNo=8610&story/Zagat-restaurant-guide-comes-to-Seoul

Yelping for Dollars

Yelping for Dollars
To attract writers in new cities, the social network cum city guide is hiring freelancers to play the part of enthusiastic fans

by Burt Helm
Technology

When chemistry graduate student Lisa Green walked into her first party hosted by review site Yelp.com, she was impressed—and relieved. The scene was Oola, a restaurant and bar in San Francisco's SOMA district. Waiters circulated trays of seared tuna and truffle-soaked French fries. Hip twenty- and thirtysomethings sipped pomegranate-and-vodka cocktails and watermelon cosmopolitans. Nowhere were the Internet nerds Green secretly feared she'd find.

For four weeks, Green had been volunteering her writing services for Yelp, which draws its lifeblood from users' unvarnished reviews of local shops, eateries, and services across the country. The evening out was her just desserts, and it's one of many ways Yelp keeps users like Green engaged. "These were fun, outgoing people, definitely people I wanted to be friends with," she says. "I don't think I would have continued if they hadn't been." The efforts are paying off. Since that party in June, 2005, Green has written more than 200 reviews for the site and she's among the legions who helped turn Yelp into a San Francisco phenomenon to rival Zagat's.

Now founders Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons want to replicate that success across the U.S. "There's no reason this couldn't be a local destination site for every big city in America," Simmons says. And they're using a small part of the $16 million in venture capital they've raised to create a sophisticated system of compensation that could create a model for building buzz around a fledgling Web site—or test the limits of paying users to contribute online content.
Attracting Users

Here's how it works: To help get established in a new locale, Yelp recruits paid "marketing assistants," to promote the site not only through everyday interaction, but also by kicking off online discussions and adding comments to other people's reviews to encourage reviewers to keep up the good work. Essentially, they help make Yelp appear to be a vibrant and outgoing community in hopes that it will actually become one. In some cities, higher-level community managers handle some of those same tasks, but also coordinate social events.

Accountant and freelance writer Maria Christensen, 42, played that role to help get Yelp established in Seattle, working 10 to 20 hours a week for $15 an hour. "We'd watch [the user base] grow from a handful to a few hundred, to more," she says. The marketing assistants are also encouraged to write reviews, but that's not their main job. Yelp tried paying $1 a pop for reviews in new cities, but that often failed to yield quality content.

Yelp's strategy cuts to the heart of the challenge facing companies that want to harness the power of online social networks: how to attract users to a site, and once there, have them stay plugged in—and even do your work for you. When it works, armies of volunteers can create massive encyclopedias like Wikipedia or sprawling online communities like News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace. When it fails, a site can quickly fade out of view. Just ask Friendster. Yelp's task is especially daunting because it has to create that spark in every city it enters. After all, it's competing with the likes of Zagat's or IAC/InterActiveCorp's (IACI) CitySearch, which combines user reviews with those produced by professionals.
User or Used?

Some reviewers may be turned off by the notion that an ostensibly disinterested fellow user is getting paid to compliment their writing. Two marketing assistants interviewed by BusinessWeek.com said that while they would tell anyone who asked that they worked for Yelp, they didn't always disclose it when interacting with users. Owning up to working for Yelp felt "weird," says Christensen. "I don't think most people knew that I was an employee…We were mostly keeping that quiet ahead of when a full-time Yelp marketing person was hired in Seattle." Yelp Chief Operating Officer Geoff Donaker says to his knowledge, the site hasn't "encountered any negative user feedback about either community management or the marketing assistants in our new cities."

Yelp's not alone in paying users to generate content—though it may be more successful. Netscape.com's Jason Calacanis offered to pay top contributors to social-bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit if they would quit and do the same work for his site. Few made the jump. "It isn't a money thing," says Karim Yergaliyev, a sophomore at the University of Maryland, whom Calacanis tried to lure away. "I like my friends there, I know what to look for," he says. "I like the Digg community." Calacanis didn't respond to requests for comment.

Yelp's Simmons says that all employees are expected to be transparent about their relationship with Yelp. He adds that the main emphasis for marketing assistants isn't generating activity on the site, but rather offline promotions.
Building Buzz

That's something Yelp, founded in July, 2004, has down to a social science. Like Tom Sawyer convincing pals that it's fun to paint a fence, the founders and Yelp Community Manager Nish Nadaraja used charm and trendy friends to make writing reviews for Yelp feel like a big party for San Francisco locals. Already influential in Silicon Valley, the PayPal alums persuaded trendsetting friends with a deep knowledge of the city to write for them to get off the ground. Then the team began throwing parties for "elite squad" users, those members who had written numerous high-quality reviews. The network effect took over, and now more than 4,500 restaurants and 2,600 shops are up on Yelp, and most locations have more than one review. More than a handful of users have written more than a thousand reviews apiece.

Building buzz is a lot harder when Yelp enters new cities. Last year the team grappled with how to take off in markets such as Chicago, New York, Boston, and Seattle. At first they tried a simple approach: For the first few weeks they would pay people $1 per review, in order to stock those areas with reviews. That filled the site with content, but not all of it was good. And it failed to give the community legs. "It didn't do anything to build an initial community," says Yelp's Donaker. "These weren't passionate users."

The job was a lot easier in nearby Los Angeles. Even without goading by Yelp management, dedicated users from San Francisco had begun writing reviews of places they had visited while on trips to the city, and San Francisco transplants to L.A. began to take an active interest in building up the site and encouraging fellow Angelenos to do the same. "We had a burgeoning little community on our hands," says Donaker. To keep the growth going in that city, the team hired a Community Manager for Los Angeles, who would throw "elite" parties like the ones in San Francisco, send out weekly newsletters with events in the city, and "keep the site warm" says Donaker, by complimenting new users' reviews and starting conversations on the talk boards.
Fostering Communities

For the cities that don't yet have communities to manage, Yelp is hiring go-getter marketing assistants to stoke the fire both on and offline. This fall it advertised the jobs in Austin, San Diego, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. "Could Yelp.com be the next YouTube?," asked a Nov. 9 ad on Craigslist in Atlanta. "According to Time magazine we could be. This critical role includes: writing witty and insightful reviews…getting your well-written friends (and their friends) to join Yelp…moderating Talk Boards, creating Lists, sending Compliments…[and] spreading the word about Yelp to the broader community."

If Yelp can attract such loyal users in every market and keep them involved, it can grow into a valuable resource for users and a lucrative ad magnet. But it has a lot riding on identifying cool, influential people and inducing them to spark interest—even if it has to use money to do it.

Helm is marketing editor for BusinessWeek in New York .

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2006/tc20061207_915943_page_2.htm

The best sites and iPhone apps for finding restaurants

Posted by: Dean Foust on July 7, 2009

One of the saving graces of business travel—which otherwise has all the romance these days of taking the Greyhouse bus cross country—is the chance to try out the local cuisines in the cities you visit. I asked my summer intern, Shalini Ramachandran, to research the best iPhone apps and web sites for travelers in search of the best local restaurants.
Shalini researched four popular restaurant apps and their corresponding websites: Urbanspoon, Yelp, LocalEats and Zagat. First up, a look at the mobile apps of each service (which are, for now, only available for the iPhone), ranked from worst to first. The best: Yelp’s iPhone app and UrbanSpoon’s web site:

Zagat to Go ’09 2 peppers
Cost: $10, from the iPhone App Store
I was pretty excited to see what cool features this expensive ($10) iPhone app would have, but I was quite disappointed. I’m a vegetarian, and the first thing I look at is how well an app understands and searches for specific dietary restrictions (i.e., vegetarian, organic). However, when I typed “vegetarian” into the search bar, Zagat only found the restaurants that are purely vegetarian…while I just wanted places with a vegetarian option. So according to Zagat, I could only eat at about seven restaurants in Atlanta (!).
Second, the rating system is confusing. Instead of using a conventional rating system—stars or somesuch—the Zagat app gives a numerical grade for food, decor and service but doesn’t say what each number means. I looked up my favorite Indian restaurant in Atlanta, Madras Saravana Bhavan, and I found on the search screen “Food: 24, Decor: 12, Service: 15, Cost: $15.” When I tried to find the rating system on the app, I couldn’t find a help page. I had no idea what “24” or “12” meant, and I couldn’t find out with a cursory browse through the app. I also didn’t know whether the cost was for the average or the most expensive item on the menu.
But the biggest quibble I have against Zagat is that you can’t find “lesser” dining places. When you’re on a business trip, sure, you’ll want nicer restaurants where you can take clients. But using Zagat, you wouldn’t be able to find the nearest Moe’s if you’re late to a meeting.
There are some nice features on Zagat: I really liked the Neighborhoods section, which filters restaurants by such characteristics as “Warm Welcome” and “Teen/Tween Appeal,” etc. Zagat’s survey is pretty comprehensive, too, since it’s based on “over 350,000 surveyors,” according to its website. Bottom line though? Save the 10 bucks and go to a movie instead.

LocalEats 3 peppers
Cost: 99 cents from the iPhone App Store
This app was difficult to compare since it works differently: Rather than helping you find all the restaurants close by, it simply rates the Top 100 restaurants in a city and gives superlatives to other eateries (in Atlanta, it tags the Varsity as serving the “Best Hotdog.”)
On one hand, this app can be useful for a business traveler who wants to find the best restaurants at a glance. I’m always interested in the best Ethiopian and best Thai restaurants in cities, so this app would be worth the 99 cents to me. It’s a pretty easy app to interact with. Plus, wherever LocalEats will take you, you know it’s going to be good…or at least critic-approved.
However, when I tried to see how it determines the best restaurants, I came to a page that told me (very pompously) that Local Eats does not use any user-generated content because users favor “deep-fried-cheese” and “Olive Garden.” (I was slightly offended because I like Olive Garden). Basically, there’s no way to tell how Local Eats comes up with its ratings—is it ambience, service, dining, and/or cost? LocalEats says it relies on the consensus of unnamed restaurant critics, and while some of its Top 100 in Atlanta are in my view deserving (like Madras Saravana Bhavan), some others aren’t (like Haveli, another Indian restaurant which I felt was overpriced and not worth the hype).

Urbanspoon Four peppers
Cost: free from the iPhone App Store.
It’s hard to dislike Urbanspoon’s app, which makes use of the iPhone’s ability to sense when it’s being shaken or flipped. Urbanspoon uses three virtual rolling bars—much like a slot machine—where you can pick a price range, area, and a category like “Mexican,” “buffett” or even “hot dog”—and then you shake! That prompts the app to randomly select a restaurant near you that meets your criteria. When I searched for an upscale Chinese restaurant in Atlanta, I locked in “Chinese” and “$$$”, shook the phone, and Urbanspoon recommended Hong Kong Harbour on Cheshire Bridge. (If you don’t want the random filter, or you simply want to read reviews, you can instead go to the browse or search page, where you can manually find the restaurant you want.)
Another thing I love about Urbanspoon is its huuuuge database of restaurants, from the Waffle Houses to the five-star joints. The flip side is that Urbanspoon’s content is all user-generated. I know I griped about LocalEats being too elitist, but Urbanspoon might be too democratic sometimes—and the ratings for some well-known restaurants might be based on the ratings of just 20 users. So it could be hard to know whether a highly rated restaurant is fancy enough for a meal with the CEO.
Also, the search feature only allows you to sort restaurants by distance, name and popularity--not by cost, availability, service or other features the pricier apps tend to have. But the bottom line: it’s free, it’s extensive and it’s cool—if nothing else, your kids will enjoy the “shake” feature.

Yelp Five peppers
Cost: free from the iPhone App Store.
I saved my top pick for last. Yelp has all the user-friendliness of Urbanspoon, but with better search filters. It’s simple, the rating system is clear, and Yelp has a huge database that allows you to look for both Mom and Pop diners as well as white tablecloth restaurants.
The search feature allows you to sort restaurants based on cost, proximity, and availability (with a button listing which restaurants are “Open Now”). So while Zagat only considers top-shelf restaurants, Yelp allows users to choose if they want that filter or not.
Restaurants are rated on a simple five-star system (thank goodness) but the ratings are all user-generated. For larger restaurants, Yelp excerpts reviews from local publications (such as Creative Loafing in Atlanta), but only provides user reviews for smaller establishments. I can forgive that though, because the user reviews on Yelp tend to be helpful.
One feature I love on Yelp’s app is the button that provides directions to each restaurant. The link takes you to Google Maps, which provides driving directions based on your GPS signal. (No other app offers directions—other simply provide a map.) Yelp also has a cool “feed” feature where you can see the latest user-generated content. So if you’re feeling adventurous, you can try out “Julie W.’s” top Indonesian food pick, posted 11 minutes ago.
The only feature I can think of that’s noticeably missing from Yelp is LocalEats’ Top 100 ratings and “Best” picks…and, I suppose, the expert reviews. Here’s my recommendation: download Yelp (since it’s free), and see if you can find what you’re looking for. If you don’t trust Yelp’s users, spend the 99 cents and get the expert picks from LocalEats too.
Now on to the websites. Generally speaking, I feel that a website should have much richer information than its corresponding app. I've rated the websites of the aforementioned apps based on how much better they are than their mobile versions—and ranked them here, worst to first:

Yelp Three peppers
Although I rated Yelp as the best iPhone app, its website was a disappointment. Yelp looks like a search engine rather than a friendly restaurant finder--it has a bunch of random links and not much structure. The user interface is a bit weak, because it takes you a while to find where to find your city and look for different types of cuisines. There's no easy way for you to just browse restaurants in, say, Lilburn, Ga. I had to click to three different pages before I could do that (and the less clicking, the better). However, Yelp’s vast database remains noteworthy.

LocalEats Three peppers
I don't like how the LocalEats website is basically the same thing as the app—which is nothing special in the first place. I'd recommend that people traveling to a new city just go online for the LocalEats' top picks, rather than download the 99 cent iPhone app. However, LocalEats.com’s blogs are well-written and entertaining, with topics like the best tips for drinking tequila (which may or may not be helpful on a business trip). But as with Yelp, the LocalEats website doesn’t recognize the city from which you’re accessing the site—you have to find your city before you can begin searching.

Zagat Four peppers
Zagat’s website also doesn't recognize the city from which you are accessing the site, but I did enjoy its discussion boards enough look past that. The different boards, like "Top Ten Dining Experiences" and "Favorite Donut Spots," were pretty accurate and well-written. Otherwise, the Zagat website suffers from the same problem as its app: its database is too small. However, I do give Zagat.com credit for providing an easy interface as well as lots of extra features by which to review restaurants, like the discussion boards.

Urbanspoon Four peppers
I give Urbanspoon.com four peppers just because it’s so user-friendly, with clearly accessible links to neighborhoods and types of cuisines, as well as "Best Fine Dining" and “Talk of the Town” lists on the homepage. Urbanspoon.com also encompasses a wider range of information than its app, including different strata of reviews (critics, blogs, then users) on the right side of the homepage. My one quibble is that none of the blogs or reviews are generated by Urbanspoon; rather, the reviews are from publications, and the blogs are outside sources that may or may not be reliable. However, I was so pleased that Urbanspoon.com recognized that I was accessing it from Atlanta (and opened the homepage to Atlanta dining) that I could definitely overlook that flaw.
Major lesson learned: a good iPhone app does not mean a good website, and vice versa.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/travelers_check/archives/2009/07/the_best_sites_and_iphone_apps_for_finding_restaurants.html

The Zagat Guide to Just About Everything

The Zagat Guide to Just About Everything
Movies, nightspots, and golf courses are now within its scope

The Zagat Guide to Just About Everything

Tim and Nina Zagat have warm memories of 1982. That's the year they began dropping off their quirky, quote-filled guides at New York bookstores from the back of their brown Toyota Corolla station wagon. Says Tim, a former lawyer who is now 62: "It started out as a hobby."

No more. The founders of Zagat Survey LLC are pushing out the edges of their empire, built on consumer surveys. Zagat's restaurant guides, which retail for $10.95 to $14.95, now cover 70 cities worldwide. Lately, the publisher has branched out into guides for movies, hotels, airlines, car rentals, and nightlife. In November, it even launched a guide for U.S. golf courses. Music and New York shopping could be next. "We are tapping into people's passions," says Nina, 60, also an ex-lawyer. "They'll always have something to say."

The Zagats are also trying to tap deeper into customers' wallets. In October, the company began charging consumers $14.95 a month for access to the once-free zagat.com. And it is making a big push to sign up corporate clients, such as Toyota (TM ) and Merck (MRK ), that are willing to pay big bucks for customized guides and advertisement tie-ins. Both new tacks, though, are risky. Few online-content companies have ever made money charging those who visit their sites. And the corporate tie-in strategy could weaken the Zagat guides' reputation for independence.

Still, taking smart risks has transformed the Zagats into a five-star couple. They live on Manhattan's ritzy Central Park West, not far from one of their favorite restaurants, Jean Georges. Privately held Zagat, with 110 employees, is adamant about not disclosing its revenues or earnings, but sources in the industry say revenues easily exceed $20 million. Tim says he expects revenues to grow by 25% in 2003. Its New York restaurant guide alone sells 650,000 copies a year.

Of course, the Zagat empire would not be possible without the more than 200,000 people selected by Zagat to be in the network of reviewers. They can be wine society members, the ad exec who dines out a lot, or just average folks. All agree to submit their reviews online, without pay. Thousands of surveys are sent in each day. The seven-person research team is kept busy all year tabulating the results into numerical ratings, city by city. From there, the data are sent to the 20-person editorial staff, to be distilled into pithy reviews. "It's all about the idea of listening to other people, a consumer democracy," says Tim.

Publishing those viewpoints has helped Zagat become a powerful brand, so much so that corporations increasingly want tie-ins. Zagat currently has agreements with 3,000 corporations. Some just want to put their logo on the cover of a guide they use as a giveaway. Others, like Toyota Motor Corp., want something more customized. The carmaker has worked with Zagat to create a guide to the Top 50 "Feel Good" movies, inserted in print ads that extol "the feeling" of driving a Toyota. Zagat also has wireless licensing deals with AT&T (T ), Verizon (VZ ), Nextel (NXTL ), and others.

Will those growing corporate connections risk sullying Zagat's reputation for being the voice of real people? Tim and Nina don't think so. In fact, they've used a $32 million investment from outside investors to help develop the $14.95 a month online subscription service. Will diners and moviegoers really fork over that kind of dough? The Zagats claim they have sold 100,000 subscriptions. But only a handful of publications, such as Consumer Reports, and The Wall Street Journal, have been able to make a go of charging for online content. And not everyone shares the Zagats' optimism. "If you're going to pay up for the Internet, why in the world would you pay for a book that will sit on your shelf?" asks one publishing exec.

Still, Tim and Nina Zagat have momentum in their favor. And they're not ruling out taking the business public in the future. But for now, these tiny publishers-turned-multimedia-hotshots have plenty to keep them busy.

Corrections and Clarifications
In "The Zagat guide to just about everything" (News: Analysis & Commentary, Dec. 9), the charge to access zagat.com should be $14.95 per year, not $14.95 per month.

By Tom Lowry in New York

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Foursquare confirms partnership with Zagat

On top of deals with Bravo TV, Warner Bros., HBO, and Harvard, Foursquare sitting pretty

Technology trends and news by Ronny Kerr
February 9, 2010 | Comments (0)
Short URL: http://vator.tv/n/da6

Foursquare, one of the leading location-based applications for discovering, sharing, and generally exploring local businesses, has just signed a deal with Zagat, a restaurant rating guide.

Through an intricate system in which users can earn points and badges by "checking-in" to bars, restaurants, and other businesses, Foursquare has garnered an impressive user base. The service currently sees a million of these check-ins a week. Now, when users check-in to Zagat-rated restaurants, users will earn a special "Foodie" badge.

Additionally, Foursquare recommendations will be supplemented by suggestions and tips from Zagat's own system. Even more interestingly, Zagat plans to initiate an interview series on its Web site called "Meet the Mayor," spotlighting the users who earn the "mayor" title for some particular place in Foursquare.

Zagat and Foursquare will both benefit from this cross-promotion.

"We saw thousands of Foursquare users checking in to Zagat-rated restaurants, and saw an opportunity to present content to them as well as engage them in gameplay," said Ryan Charles, a senior product manager at Zagat.

Foursquare has been basking in new partnerships, with the company recently announcing a deal to work in the game with Bravo TV programs. Other companies like Warner Bros. and HBO may be paying Foursquare to promote shows on their channels. The iPhone app even signed a deal with Harvard to create check-in locations on campus.

With solid partnerships like these continually rolling in at Foursquare's feet, they may be able to hold their own against new entries to the location-based scene, like Yelp, which recently added Foursquare-like check-in features to its own iPhone app.

http://vator.tv/news/2010-02-09-foursquare-secures-partnership-with-zagat

Zagat Wins Foursquare’s Battle Of The Brands

6 Comments
1

by Alexia Tsotsis on Aug 4, 2010

At least according to the folks at custom badge site Osnapz

, who have created a Foursquare

brand leaderboard

stack ranking the location based service’s many promiscuous partnerships in terms of follower count, with Zagat

in the top slot at 48,136.
For the uninitiated, the leaderboard is a glimpse into some of the more obscure Foursquare brand tie-ins and badges

, some of them holdovers from earlier campaigns like the “New York Times Olympics” badge, created especially for the Vancouver Olympics and now relegated to the badge deadpool.
Other surprises? The seven Bravo badges! At number two on the leaderboard, the cable channel’s offerings include “Bravo Newbie

,” and show-related fare including “Top Chef,” “Looking For Love,” “Real Housewife” and “Hair Aware.” Surprisingly not a surprise? The existence of a Dora The Explorer

brand tie-in, as well as the relative high prominence of social web savvy MTV at number four. And while you can “Spread Snooki”

on the iPhone, there’s no Jersey Shore-related “The Situation” badge

, as of yet. A girl can dream …

Screencap: Dennis Crowley/Flickr

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/zagat-wins-foursquares-battle-of-the-brands/?utm_source=TweetMeme&utm_medium=widget&utm_campaign=retweetbutton

Foursquare Teams With Zagat to Make Yelp Squeal

By Colin Gibbs Feb. 9, 2010, 6:34am PDT 4 Comments

Foursquare is looking beyond virtual badges to high-profile content brands to give it a leg up on competitors such as Gowalla and Yelp. The company said today it’s inked a deal with Zagat to enable users to access restaurant reviews and recommendations, according to the New York Times. And AdAge reports it’s in the process of deploying promotional campaigns for HBO and Warner Brothers. The moves follow its recent tie-up with Bravo Media as well as a deal with the Canadian version of Metro that will provide users with local news content as they check in. The strategy appears to be about making Foursquare fun AND functional.

The Zagat agreement is a counterpunch to Yelp, which last month continued to take its offering to mobile by launching check-ins for iPhone users. (The friend-finding app Loopt has joined the bandagon, too, adding local reviews two months ago.) And the flurry of new partnerships continues a roll that has seen Foursquare close in on 300,000 users — roughly tripling the base of its rival Gowalla — as it expands to 50 new cities.
The deals will give Foursquare a chance to gain mainstream exposure by opening the door for nationwide cross-promotion through well-known media companies, and will enable Foursquare to continue to gradually introduce sponsors to its users. Most importantly, though, partners like Zagat and Metro bring value to an offering that’s essentially a friend-finding service. Foursquare’s fun, gaming-style service has built considerable momentum — and is the reason it has become Om’s favorite mobile app — but virtual pats on the back and mayoral crowns will only go so far. The addition of valuable, location-based content will be crucial if Foursquare is to move beyond early adopters and into the mass market.
Image courtesy Flickr user cambodia4kidsorg.

http://gigaom.com/2010/02/09/foursquare-teams-with-zagat-to-make-yelp-squeal/

Zagat Family Is Putting Guide Empire on Market

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By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN

Published: January 14, 2008

A “clever and sharp” restaurant guide company with “telling” rankings and “a penchant for quote marks” from its thousands of “in-the-know” reviewers is “on the block.”
Zagat Survey, the guide empire that started as a hobby for Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979 as a two-page typed list of New York restaurants compiled from reviews from friends, has been put up for sale, according to people briefed on the decision.
The Zagat family has hired Goldman Sachs to seek a buyer for the company, which since its founding almost three decades ago has become part of the global culture: the company sold 5.5 million guides last year in more than 100 countries and has a Web site with 1.5 million registered users.
Its slim burgundy guides are no longer limited to restaurants but also contain rankings and reviews of hotels, nightlife, golf courses, spas and more. Zagat’s guide to restaurants in Paris sells more copies than France’s own Michelin series.
The sale is likely to attract broad interest and the company could become a trophy asset for a media mogul seeking a bit of extra gloss and power. The business could as naturally end up in the hands of Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owns Citysearch, as it could in Bruce Wasserstein’s company, publisher of New York Magazine, or even in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
While Zagat (pronounced zuh-GAHT) is considered the nation’s pre-eminent populist printed restaurant guide, less traditional buyers may find its online business its most attractive and underleveraged. Cellular telephone carriers like AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless could use it to build exclusive mobile content. Internet start-ups like OpenTable.com, which allows users to book restaurant reservations online, could pair its services with Zagat’s rankings.
Its image as a brand for affluent people could also be attractive to other suitors like the credit card companies American Express or Visa, which are courting high-end consumers, or even to a luxury company like the LVMH Group, which could turn Zagat into a lifestyle brand.
A spokeswoman for Zagat declined to comment.
The Zagats, who met at Yale Law School, could not find a publisher for their annual Manhattan restaurant rankings guide in the early 1980s, so they began publishing it themselves and delivering copies to any bookstore that would stock them. They set up a publishing company in part to get tax deductions for meals.
The business has since expanded wildly with international guides in multiple languages and into new categories. The company also began making custom guides for corporations. For example, Walt Disney commissioned a guide for attractions at its theme parks and WellPoint, the health insurer, commissioned a guide on doctors in its network. In both cases, the rankings and reviews were completed independently of the companies that paid for them.
Zagat has tried to build its online business, but it has largely remained a paid subscription service, preventing it from becoming a magnet for users and advertisers.
In recent years, the company has struck a series of alliances, most recently with Facebook. It also has a content distribution agreement with Google so that Zagat content pops up on Google Maps, and with Priceline.com, which offers rating and reviews on its home page using Zagat content.
Mr. and Mrs. Zagat’s son, Ted, joined the company, rising to president, and led efforts to increase its business online until he left last January to become a vice president at Univision.
“What I think is in the minds of Tim and Nina is that they have taken it to a certain level,” said Peter A. Georgescu, a longtime friend of the Zagats and the chairman emeritus of Young & Rubicam. “It’s a fabulous brand, but they need the kind of resources that organic growth cannot sustain.”
It is unclear how large a price Zagat will attract. While the company is a worldwide brand, its actual business is much smaller. People briefed on the company’s finances suggest the company could be valued at more than $200 million, which would still be a drop in the bucket for an Internet company or a wealthy executive.
In 2000, Zagat was valued at more than $100 million when the family sold a third of the business to an investment group led by General Atlantic Partners, a private investment firm based in Greenwich, Conn. The other institutional investors were Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley’s best-known venture capital operations, and Allen & Company, the media investor and adviser.
Nathan Myhrvold, a former chief technology officer of Microsoft, also invested, as did Nicholas Negroponte, director of the media laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the founder of One Laptop Per Child, and Nancy Peretsman, an Allen & Company investment banker.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/09/zagat-vs-yelp-restaurant-online-reviews.html

Zagat vs. Yelp: A Restaurant Review 2.0 Showdown?

Posted by Ed Levine, September 8, 2008 at 8:30 AM

Randall Stross compared Yelp and Zagat in the New York Times on Sunday. While he correctly noted that Yelp now covers more restaurants than Zagat, and uses this as a launching pad to compare and contrast the two companies, he leaves out the most relevant points. Most notably, he completely whiffs on recent business goings-on in the world of user-generated restaurant reviews.
My first question is what do serious eaters think about both Zagat and Yelp?
And while you ponder that, here's what Stross should have pointed out in his comparison.
Stross interviews Zagat co-founder Nina Zagat, who correctly points out that Zagat was the pioneer of user-generated restaurant reviews. The company is about to celebrate its thirtieth birthday. But he fails to point out that Zagat's long headstart in this realm was wasted because:
a) Zagat has adapted poorly and slowly to the web 2.0 world. Though its paywall has generated revenue, it has also severely limited the Zagat traffic numbers. Zagat's failure to adapt to the web world fast enough has granted Yelp (and Yelpers) a huge advantage.
b) Because Zagat was started as a print vehicle by two lawyers 30 years ago, the customer base, by definition, is going to be significantly older and less web-oriented-and-savvy than Yelp, which was built from the get-go in 2005 as a younger-skewing web community. Again, this gave Yelp a tremendous leg up in terms of building traffic.
c) Perhaps most egregiously, Stroess fails to mention that in the last year Zagat tried and failed to find a buyer at what was reported to be a wildly inflated asking price. Zagat has now, apparently, taken itself off the market. Many observers think that Yelp's emergence is one of the principal reasons Zagat couldn't fetch anything close to the asking price. The real question here—do we live in a Yelpized world where Zagat's time has passed? The Zagat guides will continue to stay relevant and useful to older restaurant-goers, particularly in New York, where they have something of a print stranglehold on the market. But going forward, it's hard to see how Zagat will compete effectively with the Yelps of the world.

"zagat.com" is worth $28,589,803 USD

Available Data

Pageviews per day: 4,287,135
Daily revenue from ads: $16,317
Host Name: zagat.com
Host IP: 206.72.124.220
Google Page Rank: 7
Google Backlinks: ~ 0
Yahoo Inlinks: 523,932
Alexa Ranking: 14,039
Alexa Links: 2,615
Alexa Graph:

DMOZ Listed?: Yes
Site Category: Top/ Recreation/ Food/ Dining_Guides
Site Title: Zagat Survey
Site Description: Worldwide restaurant guide featuring top rankings, menus, reservations, user reviews, and ratings.
Archive of zagat.com

Zagat Survey

zagat.com

Zagat Survey

About Zagat Survey (zagat.com): Worldwide restaurant guide featuring top rankings, menus, reservations, user reviews, and ratings.

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Query		Activity

1	Baltimore Restaurants
2	Chicago Restaurants
3	San Francisco Restaurants
4	Sun Valley
5	Estes Park Co
6	Boston Restaurants
7	Restaurant Ratings
8	Chicago
9	New York Restaurants
10	Restaurants

Zagat.com has a three-month global Alexa traffic rank of 13,904. The site's visitors view 3.9 unique pages each day on average. The site has been online for more than twelve years. The site is relatively popular among users in the cities of New York (where it is ranked #1,258), Philadelphia (#1,990), and San Francisco (#1,993). Zagat.com is based in the US.

none Star (No reviews yet)	13,904 Alexa Traffic Rank Alexa Traffic Rank A measure of zagat.com's popularity. The rank is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors to zagat.com and pageviews on zagat.com over the past 3 months. The site with the highest combination of visitors and pageviews is ranked #1. Updated Daily	3,168 Traffic Rank in US Traffic Rank in Country A measure of zagat.com's popularity in a specific country. The complete list of zagat.com's ranks by country is on the 'Traffic Stats' tab below. The rank by country is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors to zagat.com and pageviews on zagat.com from users from that country over the past 3 months. The site with the highest combination of visitors and pageviews is ranked #1 in that country. Updated Daily	2,615 Sites Linking In Sites Linking In A measure of zagat.com's reputation. The number of sites linking to zagat.com. Multiple links from the same site are only counted once. Updated Quarterly	03-Nov-1997 Online Since Online Since The date the zagat.com domain was first registered.

none Star

(No reviews yet)

13,904

Alexa Traffic Rank

3,168

Traffic Rank in US

2,615

Sites Linking In

03-Nov-1997

Online Since

Alexa traffic rank for zagat.com:

	Traffic Rank	Change
7 day	12,316	-2,126
1 month	14,267	+1,168
3 month	13,904	+491

Percent of global pageviews on zagat.com:

	Pageviews	Change
7 day	0.00052	+22%
1 month	0.00041	-9%
3 month	0.00042	-0.6%

Percent of global Internet users who visit zagat.com:

	Reach	Change
7 day	0.01240	+13%
1 month	0.01110	-3%
3 month	0.01100	+2%

The percentage of visits to zagat.com that consist of a single pageview:

	Bounce %	Change
7 day	49.30000	-4%
1 month	51.10000	+12%
3 month	48.60000	0%

Daily pageviews per user for zagat.com:

	Pageviews/User	Change
7 day	4.40000	+8%
1 month	3.81000	-6%
3 month	3.88000	-3%

Daily time on site for zagat.com:

	Time on Site	Change
7 day	3.16333	-6%
1 month	3.16167	-15%
3 month	3.35333	0%

The percentage of visits to zagat.com that came from a search engine:

	Search %	Change
7 day	42.70000	+20%
1 month	39.90000	+4%
3 month	38.40000	+10%

Compare zagat.com to:

Learn more about Alexa Traffic Stats.

Average Load Time for Zagat.com

Average (1.491 Seconds), 53% of sites are slower.

Note: Slow sites may be penalized by search engines.

Zagat.com’s Worldwide Traffic Rank

Country

Rank

3,168

14,962

20,687

42,275

53,460

62,130

66,309

126,608

Where Visitors Go on Zagat.com

Subdomain

Percent of Site Traffic

zagat.com

100.0%

Audience Snapshot

Top Search Queries for Zagat.com

Based on internet averages, zagat.com is visited more frequently by females who have no children, are college educated and browse this site from work.

Get complete site demographics.

Query	Percent of Search Traffic

1	zagat	4.25%
2	restaurant reviews	0.74%
3	zagats	0.57%
4	restaurants	0.51%
5	restaurant	0.31%
6	best restaurants in nyc	0.28%
7	restaurant guide	0.26%

View the full Audience Profile

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Improve your SEO with an Alexa Site Audit for zagat.com.

Search Traffic

The percentage of site visits from search engines.

Period	Percent of Site Traffic

Last 30 days	39.9%
Last 7 days	42.7%
Yesterday	38.8%

Top Queries from Search Traffic

The top queries driving traffic to zagat.com from search engines. Updated monthly.

Query	Percent of Search Traffic

1	zagat	4.25%
2	restaurant reviews	0.74%
3	zagats	0.57%
4	restaurants	0.51%
5	restaurant	0.31%
6	best restaurants in nyc	0.28%
7	restaurant guide	0.26%
8	restaurant review	0.25%
9	boston restaurants	0.21%
10	zagat.com	0.17%

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Search Traffic on the Rise and Decline

The top queries from search engines driving relatively more/less traffic to zagat.com in the current month than the previous month. Updated monthly.

Search Query	1 Month Increase The change in percentage of search traffic to zagat.com for each query.

1	chesapeake	0.14%
2	wok and roll	0.12%
3	restaurant reviews	0.11%
4	restaurant guide	0.08%
5	best restaurants	0.06%
6	zagat guide	0.05%
7	restaurant	0.04%
8	old saybrook ct	0.04%
9	zagat.com	0.04%
10	claim jumper menu	0.03%

Search Query	1 Month Decline The change in percentage of search traffic to zagat.com for each query.

1	zagat	0.64%
2	best restaurants in nyc	0.23%
3	chicago restaurants	0.11%
4	zagats	0.09%
5	best restaurants nyc	0.08%
6	estes park co	0.07%
7	restaurants	0.07%
8	sun valley	0.07%
9	boston restaurants	0.06%
10	five guys	0.05%

Search Advertising Metrics Highlights

Data provided by iSpionage. Visit iSpionage to discover additional information metrics for zagat.com.

Last Month Stats (Estimated)
PPC Budget	$2,138 - $3,362
Last Month Clicks	2,886 - 3,585
Avg. Ad Position	2
Google PPC Keywords	374
Yahoo PPC Keywords	7

Advertiser: zagat.com

Query Query A phrase that drives traffic to “zagat.com” from search engines. This list also includes sub-phrases that account for a high percentage of this site's search traffic broken out separately. For example, if the site receives traffic for 'buy diamond ring', 'diamond necklace', and 'diamond bracelet', the word 'diamond' might also appear in the list.	Impact Factor Impact Factor A high value indicates that “zagat.com” is getting significant organic search traffic for queries containing these phrases, despite high advertising competition for these phrases. Impact Factor is a combined measurement of the importance of a particular phrase to the site's search traffic and the level of search engine advertising competition (QCI). The index is on a scale of 0 to 100. Updated Monthly	Query Popularity Query Popularity An estimate of how frequently users search for these keywords, on a scale from 0 to 100. Higher numbers indicate higher frequencies. Updated Monthly	QCI The Query Competition Index QCI indicates the typical number of ads displayed for keyword searches on major search engines. A large number of ads indicates strong advertising competition for a query. The index is on a scale from 0 to 100. Updated Monthly
High Impact Search Queries for zagat.com Popular queries that are relevant to this site and are actively targeted by competitors advertising on search engines. Click on queries below to discover who is advertising for these queries.
zagat	13.95	46	12
restaurant reviews	9.19	36	44
restaurants	7.73	50	53
restaurant guide	3.82	33	51
chicago restaurants	3.58	32	75
boston restaurants	3.55	28	60
restaurant	3.55	57	40
baltimore restaurants	2.16	23	83
restaurant review	1.95	31	28
zagats	1.82	33	11
restaurant ratings	1.61	23	58
zagat new york	1.41	19	45
sun valley	1.34	33	67
san francisco restaurants	1.27	30	74
zagat's new york city	1.24	16	100
zagat wine	1.17	24	76
new york	1.07	60	50
zagat wine club	1.03	22	100
zagat to go	1.02	21	25
new york restaurants	0.95	29	56
chicago	0.93	57	57
best restaurants nyc	0.89	24	30
restaurants nyc	0.88	25	43
best restaurant in nyc	0.80	21	57
restaurant in nyc	0.79	5	100
restaurants reviews	0.75	17	67
restaurants in san francisco	0.73	22	80
san francisco	0.71	57	55
new york city	0.65	50	58
restaurant nyc	0.62	24	57

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Activity by zagat.com

Ads for zagat.com have appeared on major search engines when people performed the queries below. Click on the queries below to discover more information.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Opportunities for zagat.com

Queries that provide opportunities for this site to advertise through Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to get more traffic. They are popular queries that are relevant to the site, and have low competition in search engine marketing. Learn More