The internet has irreversibly changed the world we live in today. Information is accessible on the go. In this information age, a business can access its clients without having to go to them physically or put an advertisement through the traditional media. Clients can also access their service provider simply by the click of the mouse or touch of the pad. Clients can share information about their favourite joints, like, post pictures of them without being there or seeing each other. This interconnectedness has created a whole new marketing medium-internet marketing, or simply e-marketing. This new medium has dealt a great blow to the traditional medium of marketing(Ryan & Jones, 2012). It is cheaper and it is efficient. It has also resulted in intense competition for the attention of the customer; new clients naturally gravitate towards those who package themselves well online(Scott, 2010).
Research has established that more than 90% of consumers conduct some form of research about a product or a service provide before actually going there or buying the product. Providers who have online presence are therefore the ones that reap from these trends(Hemann & Burbary, 2013). This is where OpenRice comes in; it attempts to make restaurants visible to the clients out there. It fills the vacuum of the need for clients to connect with their service providers not just physically but digitally, when they are not within the precincts of the restaurants. Through the services offered by OpenRice, restaurants can access new, existing and potential clients more easily and less costly; they can make any new information visible to the intended clients in a click of a button; learn the behaviours of existing and new clients; they can check out what competitors are doing; and most importantly, they can measure the scale and returns of these outreach programs more effectively than in traditional marketing channels(OpenRice).
A great number of people are living inside their mobile phones now. OpenRice has made an App for restaurants. The App is currently the most popular food app in Hong Kong averaging close to a million users. It is expanding across other countries in Asia and Asia-Pacific. It gives people the convenience of being able to make reservations at their favourite restaurants on its App. People can also review which cuisines are available at which restaurants(OpenRice).