Enjoy Yourself: The App That's Taking Beijing's F&B World by Storm
In Beijing’s saturated food and beverage market it is no longer enough to rely on the quality of your food alone; today’s savvy – some might say picky – consumers are looking for an experience, something unique that they can share with their friends in person or, more likely, on their WeChat moments. Enter Enjoy, a new dining experience app that is taking Beijing – and China – by storm.
Enjoy’s young CEO, Marco Chen, came up with the idea for Enjoy after a particularly memorable meal. “Around September 2014, I was eating by myself in a sushi restaurant. While I was eating, the sushi master came up to me and asked after a friend of mine. Suddenly I remembered that 18 months previously I had taken my friend to the same restaurant to celebrate his birthday, and the same sushi master had come over to wish him happy birthday and give us a complimentary flask of shochu. That meal stuck in my head ever since, not because of the food, but because of the experience. I wanted to come up with a product that did the same for other people.”
Browsing through the Enjoy app brings to mind the heyday of group buying deals, but in a much more stylish package. The sleek monochrome interface presents a gallery of dining deals for a number of Beijing’s top restaurants, many of which are designed exclusively for Enjoy. “Some of our restaurants have chefs with Michelin experience, some are exclusive supper clubs, and some are leaders in a particular type of cuisine. Just like a fashion buyer, Enjoy’s core competitiveness lies in our ability to effectively evaluate the appeal of a restaurant. We don’t sell cheap buffet deals and we don’t really work with chain restaurants. An interesting chef, years of experience in the food industry, excellent service, dishes you can’t get anywhere else … these are the things we look for in a restaurant,” says Chen.
Consumers – who they are, what they like, where they eat – are at the heart of Enjoy’s business model. Their target audience of young, high income urban professional are constantly bombarded with information about where and what to eat, but often do not have the time or energy to think critically about food. As Chen explains, “Enjoy isn’t for the kind of people who choose a restaurant based on how many pleats they put in their baozi; it’s for the kind of people who want to grab a couple of friends and pop out for afternoon tea to catch up at the weekend.” The online-to-offline model Enjoy employs is the best way to reach these time-poor, mobile-friendly consumers.
When Enjoy first launched, we spoke to many people in the food and beverage industry who were skeptical of just another app selling dining deals, yet today it boasts some of Beijing’s most popular restaurants, including Migas, Feast, and Jing Yaa Tang, among its partners. In the face of soaring operating costs in the food and beverage industry in China, restaurants like the above are increasingly looking for creative ways to attract and retain customers, without increasing their marketing budget.
Chen believes that restaurants have come round to the idea that Enjoy is more than just a sales platform; it’s a promotional tool.“ We give restaurants a platform to tell their story to consumers, to show off what makes them unique.” When a venue signs up to work with Enjoy, they send their photographers by to take stunning pictures of the restaurant and food, often providing a finished product much more professional than the restaurants could afford by themselves.“At the end of the day, consumers want a unique experience and restaurants want to attract high quality clientele. Enjoy meets the demands of both groups.”
Enjoy is available on iPhone and Android. After launching in Beijing they have expanded to Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou, and also offer nationwide delivery of gourmet food products. For more information, and to download the app, visit enjoy.ricebook.com.
A TASTE OF ENJOY’S TOP PROMOTIONS:
- A barbecue buffet at Pinotage, with 15 types of barbecue meats and 11 side dishes, RMB 128 per person
- An 18 course set menu for one at Japanese restaurant GebaGeba, RMB 200 per person
- Migas’ popular Saturday carnivore’s brunch, RMB 210 per person, a saving of RMB 60
- A Peking duck set dinner for four at China World Summit Wing’s Red Chamber, RMB 555
More stories by this author here.
Email: robynnetindall@thebeijinger.com
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Photo courtesy of Enjoy
