Recently, our Managing Director, Johnny Huntington, who is also the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of yAd!G.com was invited by Richard Dean of DubaiEye 103.8 Radio Channel for an exclusive interview. The interview was conducted as part of Dubai Eye’s “Launch-Pad” series, and was focused on yAd!G, the social networking phenomenon that has taken the local Internet scene by storm.
yAd!G, as we all know, is a website which combines functionalities of local reviews and social networking to create an online community. Users can create free accounts and post reviews regarding local businesses. At present, yAd!G focuses on five specific categories of bars, hotels, restaurants, night clubs and coffee shops (more categories will be added in the future) and is designed to provide up-to-date reviews to enhance user awareness and experience.
Since its launch, yAd!G has successfully completed the initial phases of its development, which included creation of a functionally acceptable environment along with generation of a category specific database. In December, yAd!G highlighted 2,837 individual cafes, coffee shops, restaurants, night clubs, hotels and bars in Dubai, for which it received much media attention.
As far as the business model goes, yAd!G is currently a privately funded setup. “We are actually pumping all our money, all our concerns, all our time and energies in building a really good, feasible and global system” added Johnny. The site eventually plans to move to a subscription based model, where businesses will be leveraged to pay for advertisements, special offers, and event promotions. In return businesses will get instant feedback with regard to their audience and customer base through yAd!G’s “trend reporting dashboard”, and thus be able to amend their strategies & tactics in light of real-time customer feedback.
Since launch yAd!G has witnessed an incremental growth of 20%-25% in its user base. The site is currently focused on expanding operations/coverage to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the rest of the MENA region, with an anticipated increase of 250,000-500,000 users by July 2011. Shortly afterwards yAd!G plans to expand its coverage to Europe and beyond.
Listen to the full interview and learn more about yAd!G: its aims, goals, ambitions and opportunities by visiting yAdiG's blog
