iFood.tv is a video community for food lovers that is getting some good traction. It has been started by a bunch of Indian expats in the US, who hit upon this idea after spending hours on the internet trying to find the right recipe. Buoyed by the growing number of food related blogs and culinary videos on YouTube, they are seeking to grow this into a complete community around food. The primary audience for the site is not housewives as one might think, but young professionals living away from parents. It is necessary for such people to manage their food themselves, hence access to a ready repository on the web will come in handy for them. iFood in four months since launch has aggregated 4000 recipes and is getting 6 million hits monthly (source: iFood.tv team)
iFood is looking towards professional chefs, culinary students, food bloggers, hobbyists, restaurant hoppers, knowledge seekers, and other special-interest groups to promote production and consumption of content on the site. The website comes with all the web2.0 goodies that internet junkies are all too familiar with- search, tags, ratings, commenting, bookmarkings etc. You are likely to find recipes from all over the world with a sizable chunk of them being about Indian food spread over its different ethnicities. It has a growing collection of culinary videos, such as the one shown below, which teaches you how to make roomali rotis (referred to as handkerchief bread).
iFood is an indicator that web2.0 is spreading its tentacles over hitherto unexplored frontiers of our lives. Food is a universal human need- so the demand side of the business equation is unquestioned. The unanswered part might be the revenue model which for IFood is primarily oriented towards advertising with a possibility of other options e.g services and listings.
This site was just the right thing I was looking for after landing in the U.S. The first thing you got to do after going away from home is to cook. The video recipes specially those from Shakti Jha and Sonya were particularly helpful for easy home cooking. Additionally, I was able to make a few friends on the site.
thanks for this lovely site..
Nice site , Looking at all those dishes left me feeling hungry.
Good idea , niche target and impressive growth :).
Hmmmm, just the thing India was looking for.
never heard rumali roti being called handkerchief bread before !
One of my known gave me the feedback – that the site should have written recipes along with videos. In India, where broadband penetration is pretty los, it’s frustating to see the video…Any views?
-Mukul
@ Mukul
Right Mukul , broadband penetration is still not gr8 in India to watch videos.
But i feel site is pritty good as they have also written the recipes.
They have collected good number of delicious looking food recipes. Cool 🙂