Case Foodie

Enabling smart consumer choices through social shopping

Foodie.fm combines recipes, supermarket stock lists and recommendations from friends and like-minded users to help people solve the basic problem of what they should buy and eat today.

"What people like about Foodie is the personalised recommendations based on their preferences and taste profiles. We take the service to wherever people are by enabling access via mobile or the web, and through widgets in our partners' portals," explains Kalle Koutajoki, CEO and c o-founder of Digital Foodie Ltd, the rapidly growing company behind the Foodie social shopping service.

Recipes and product lists are obtained from Foodie's partners such as the Unilever and the S-group (Finland's largest retail chain), but Koutajoki stresses that Foodie is primarily a community and not a web shop. The most popular route into Foodie's Finnish services is through Facebook.

Foodie is growing fast, with new features added regularly. The next move will be into the challenging but uniquely advanced retail market of the UK, where Koutajoki sees great potential. "The market is ready, and British retailers who are looking to add a social layer into their services with help from partners like us," he says. "So far the grocery segment has been conservative compared to other sectors when it comes to online shopping, but it will soon undergo major changes."

Foodie.fm co-founder Samuli Mattila came up with the idea for this service when these two established entrepreneurs were looking for new problems to solve after successfully developing the mobile navigation system Navicore. Though Kalle is not exactly a foodie himself, Koutajoki is particularly fond of Asian food. His favourite recipe from the 8,000 plus dishes on Foodie's extensive menu is spicy Thai chicken salad. 
www.foodie.fm