Dianping.com Ranks First on China's Top 10 "Annual Business Model Future Stars" List

SHANGHAI, Nov. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- China's Top 10 "Annual Business Model Future Stars" list was announced at the "2011 Best Business Model China Summit" in Beijing on November 18. Dianping.com topped the list, with its innovations for an online business model that were unanimously recognized by the panel of judges. The winners were selected by an unbiased panel of judges consisting of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Beijing International MBA (BiMBA) at Peking University, various consulting organizations and investment companies, together with leaders from established companies, economists and industry experts.

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"Dianping.com provides consumers with information services for their day to day living, while offering local businesses precise and integrated marketing solutions," said Long Wei, director and senior vice president of the company, at the awarding ceremony. The growth of Dianping.com has been phenomenal. To cite one example, consumers are increasingly going to the site using their mobile phones to look for which restaurants are offering deals before stepping out to eat. "We will strive to provide both consumers and merchants with good services," he continued.

Dianping.com, established in 2003, is China's first Web 2.0 site based on user generated content and the world's first independent third-party local review site. Sectors covered include restaurants, leisure, shopping, weddings and parenting. In China's large and medium-sized cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Guangzhou, it has now become second nature for college students and white-collar workers to get the full rundown on a merchant at Dianping.com before deciding whether to buy their services or products or download one of their discount coupons.

In fact, consumer reviews is just one of the many features of Dianping.com. After eight years in development, the site has evolved into a comprehensive service platform offering one-stop precision marketing solutions for local businesses. Group-buying, in Dianping.com's view, is a novel marketing method that addresses the marketing needs of local businesses at certain stages of their development. At each stage of their marketing efforts, local businesses can use different mixes of marketing tools, including e-coupons and keyword promotion, to reach their desired result. Since introducing group buying in June 2010, Dianping.com has rolled out the service in more than 20 cities across China including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, with monthly revenues now topping the 100 million yuan (approx. $US 15 million) mark.

Dianping.com's business model was recognized by the panel also for its penetration into the mobile market. According to figures from Sino-Market Research Ltd., an authoritative market research organization in China's mobile communications sector, in the first half of 2011, Dianping.com's downloadable app was the one most commonly found on the screens of Android device users. The app is a favorite on a wide range of other major handset manufacturers as well and is performing exceptionally well on devices that operate on Apple iOS and Symbian operating systems, on Blackberry handsets and on iPads. All the information available through the app is delivered in real time and fully synchronized with Dianping.com's main website, providing the same wide variety of information for city living. In addition, features such as geographically organized merchant directories, recommendation of nearby merchants, group-buying, signing in via mobile phones, consumer reviews and e-coupon downloads are all viewed as a win-win solution for consumers and local businesses alike.

Data shows that as of the end of October 2011, the app had been downloaded and was being used on more than 13 million mobile devices, and that the number of downloads continues to increase exponentially. Monthly page views via mobile devices now make up over 60 percent of the Dianping.com's total, while growth in page views via mobile is soon expected to outpace that of the website itself. Dianping.com CEO Zhang Tao further added, "The mobile internet will be the focus of the company going forward."

About Dianping.com

Shanghai, China-based Dianping.com, established in April 2003, is a leading online city life guide and one of the first online independent third-party consumer service rating sites worldwide, committed to providing restaurant, shopping, entertainment, leisure and day to day living services through its interactive platform. The site provides detailed merchant information, featured promotions along with the consumer services ratings. In addition, the firm provides one-stop precision marketing solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, including e-coupons, keyword promotion and group buying. Dianping.com has also successfully expanded into the mobile internet sector with the firm's mobile apps having become indispensable to many of the inhabitants of China's major metropolises.

Some stats:

• As of Q3 2011, with a footprint encompassing approximately 2,300 cities across China, Dianping.com had more than 42 million of active users posting 20 million reviews monthly on over 1.2 million member merchants.
• During Q3 2011, Dianping.com clocked, on average, more than 500 million page views monthly. The site's 13 million unique mobile users accounted for more than 60 per cent of the page views.
• To date, Dianping.com has established branches in more than 20 cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Wuxi, Ningbo, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Jinan, Qingdao, Shenyang, Dalian, Changsha, Harbin and Fuzhou.

SOURCE Dianping.com