By TheFork
“Our story began 15 years ago from a simple but extraordinary desire: to support restaurateurs in their digitalisation, by offering them a new way to foster relationships between restaurants and diners, and by providing the first online booking diary for professionals.” – CEO Almir Ambeskovic
When did it all start
TheFork has revolutionised the market suggesting a new and unique model in Europe by providing the first online booking diary. With this digital solution, TheFork disrupted the market and eased the research of restaurants, and the bookings and benefiting from the personal recommendations thanks to the grading and reviews of the users. On the restoration side, TheFork has simplified the management of the operations for the restaurant managers by allowing them to focus on the heart of their activity, their cuisine and their clients.
What are we celebrating?
As you can imagine, 15 years is a long time that we have been next to all restaurants. From the Michelin ones to the smallest on the corner of the street, providing you with different solutions to optimise booking management, streamline operations, increase traffic and visibility and improve service and boost revenue.
And what’s more…
🚀 420 million people that TheFork has sent to restaurants around 12 countries
✍🏻20 million reviews on our platform that has helped restaurants to engage with their customers and have feedback on their services
📲30 million downloads of TheFork app!
🤝60.000 partner restaurants that have trusted us to boost their business!
And what’s next?
Within the context of the 15 years, TheFork launched a study of the restaurant industry partnering with Euromonitor to bring an overview of the sector and bring up what’s coming in the future.
Digitalisation era + TheFork pay & Gift Card
With the growth in digitalisation and adoption of mobile and contactless payments, especially among the younger generation, mobile wallet payments in Europe increased by a CAGR of 33.3% over 2014-19*. Furthermore, with COVID-19 restricting people to stay at home and minimising physical contact, people shifted from cash to digital modes of payment. This was reflected by the boost in mobile wallet payments, growing by 42.8% over 2019-21. With this trend expected to continue in the future, and consumers’ increasing need for convenience, mobile wallet payments are expected to grow by a CAGR of 16.1% over 2021-25.
At TheFork, we anticipated this trend and accelerated the development of digital payment by launching TheFork Pay in 2020 in Spain, France and Italy. This in-app contactless payment solution allows safety, speed, simplicity and a limitation of human contact and has become nowadays the most used solution in Europe.
Along with TheFork PAY, we launched TheFork Gift Card, the first gift card that allows users to enjoy a restaurant experience in more than 30,000 partner restaurants in the three markets. TheFork Gift Card is a digital & gourmet Gift Card that can be spent in more than 25.000 restaurant partners of TheFork to enjoy and share regional gastronomy, cuisines from around the world, high-end experiences and much more. Among other purposes, TheFork Gift Card aims to become a tool for companies to reward their employees at different moments of the year like Christmas, summer or special occasions with an original and perfect gift. This card includes Michelin-awarded Restaurants with a validity of 18 months after purchase which allows the recipients to choose the perfect moment and restaurant to use it.
In this way, the platform launches an innovative system that can definitely help companies to improve the working conditions of their employees in an original but confident way. Offering a reward where the employee can choose where to use it and which is easy to get right because it is difficult for someone not to be excited about a new gastronomic experience, isn’t it?
Following TheFork’s mission, Bringing happiness through amazing dining experiences, the company believes that the Gift Card is the best way to reward and improve employees’ benefits by offering them the opportunity to try new restaurants and discover new flavours and also support the restaurant industry by encouraging people to go and revive the sector.
Sustainable future
According to Euromonitor’s data, in 2021 26,5% of people interviewed in Europe, have indicated that they look for attributes of durable origin regarding food products while 13.2% were willing to pay more for sustainably produced food. As global food demand generates 22 to 37% of greenhouse gas emissions**food and production habits must change for a more virtuous approach, and all industry players have a role to play in it. At TheFork, we know that we have the opportunity to make a change and we will be by the side of the restaurant industry to influence our ecosystem of users and restaurants to build a more sustainable behaviour.
Willing to discover more about TheFork Gift Card? Ask directly to our sales manager of the Gift Card at dbarbera@thefork.com
