The Digital Food Explosion
Alex Baxter
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Food is what celebrity gossip was just a few years ago: the hot new topic around which to focus a digital media product. Witness recent and impending launches for Condé Nast’s free iPad app Gourmet Live, Parade’s DashRecipes.com and Spanfeller Media Group’s The Daily Meal, which now includes New York restaurant review site Always Hungry (recently acquired by Spanfeller).
As we saw with the likes of TMZ, Perez Hilton, Us magazine and others during the celebrity run-up, the food space is getting crowded quickly and differentiation is becoming difficult. ComScore says the leaders of the pack, using August 2010 unique visitors as a measure, are AllRecipes.com, FoodNetwork.com, Epicurious.com and MyRecipes.com.
At the core of these food sites are recipes and food prep instruction. Turbulent economic conditions over the last few years have driven families to cost cutting and minimizing the number of meals they eat outside of the home. Creativity has become required not only in putting together delicious meals in one’s own kitchen, but in pulling it off using discounted or sale priced ingredients. In turn, digital couponing and digital circulars have taken off in this period, led by the likes of Coupons.com and beta site QPonix.
It’s a perfect storm for food properties, with foodies and parents on the go looking to feed their insatiable appetite for all things food. Look for winners to emerge who find the right combination of excitement, practicality and budget-mindedness.
Minsider columnist Alex Baxter is VP and GM of Parade Digital.
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