Discount Dilemma

Getting 50 per cent off your meal always sounds like a good deal - after all, it's not about dining cheap, but about dining smart, as eatigo co-founder Judy Tan puts it. That may explain why discount dining apps like eatigo, The Entertainer and new entrant EatPlayLive are growing in popularity here.

Since its launch in 2015, eatigo has seen around 400,000 app downloads, and get about 30,000 new downloads every month.The Entertainer on the other hand, has had "triple digit growth every single year" according to Singapore's country manager Keith Jaggard.

While these numbers prove that consumers still love their discounts, the whirlwind popularity (and subsequent fading out) of the American e-commerce company Groupon - which has recently rebranded after being acquired by the Fave Group - begs the question as to whether such apps are healthy for the restaurants offering them.