It's the end of the road for Singtel's HungryGoWhere

Singapore

FOOD reviews and restaurant reservations portal HungryGoWhere is set to shutter on July 11, the Singtel-owned business announced on its website.

In a statement posted on its home page on Tuesday, HungryGoWhere said: "It has been an amazing 15 years, and we're really proud to have served you. Thanks for supporting us, we'll miss you."

When reached for comment, a Singtel spokesperson said that the group has re-deployed "most" of HungryGoWhere's 13-member team to other roles within Singtel, and is offering re-employment assistance to those retrenched.

Asked why Singtel is exiting the restaurant reservations market, she said: "In line with the group's business refocus, we have conducted a detailed review of HungryGoWhere and explored various options for the business. However, it has faced severe challenges posed by competitive pressure in the industry, which has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic."

The closure of HungryGoWhere comes as Singtel undergoes a strategic review of its digital businesses Amobee and Trustwave. The telco further seeks to unlock value from its infrastructure asset portfolio.

The shuttering also comes about a year after the closure of Hooq Digital, a streaming service in which Singtel had an indirect 76.5 per cent effective interest. Hooq axed 240 staff across six markets, including about 98 in Singapore.

One of Singapore's earliest startups, HungryGoWhere was acquired by Singtel in 2012 for S$12 million. Its three co-founders built the company at a time when venture capital funding was almost non-existent and a third of the restaurants they approached did not even have e-mail.

Co-founder Dennis Goh, who is no longer with HungryGoWhere, told The Business Times that the restaurant reviews space is much more crowded today than it was at the time of the acquisition. The ways in which people consume digital content have also evolved and become more "decentralised", he said.

"If I asked you today about where you find your food, some people would say Instagram, some would say Facebook, and others might bring up Tripadvisor or Google Maps. Back in 2008, you would've easily said HungryGoWhere," said Mr Goh, who stayed on for about two years at the company after the Singtel acquisition.

The emergence of short viral videos and influencers have also changed the way content is delivered to consumers. And with the boom in Singapore's startup ecosystem, players such as Chope and ShopBack have muscled in aggressively into the restaurant deals space.

"You can sense that there is a changing of an era. Everything that worked in the early days of Singapore might not necessarily work today," said Mr Goh.

HungryGoWhere on Tuesday said that to thank merchants for their support, it will not charge them fees for June and July. Merchants have up to July 11 to save their dining reservations data, after which the information will no longer be accessible.

Customers can still make or edit reservations up till July 11, and should reconfirm their bookings with restaurants if their reservation falls after that date.

The HungryRewards programme will be discontinued on June 30; users can transfer their accumulated HungryDollars (Hungry$) to Singtel Dash cash credits by that date.

HungryGoWhere's closure stands in contrast to the time of its acquisition, when Singtel touted the move as a game-changer that would create an audience of two million customers.

Allen Lew, then the chief executive of Group Digital Life at Singtel, had said in a statement : "A cornerstone of Singtel's growth strategy is to build digital solutions that help consumers in their daily lives ... Possessing local knowledge and content is critical, as it allows us to compete effectively in these areas."