Yadig.com: A Local Review Site for the Middle East
YaDig is the Middle East’s largest local reviewing community, with over 225,000 users per month reading and reviewing local businesses in their city.”, according to Andrew Miller, Marketing Director of YaDig.com.
“People use YaDig every day to find the best places to go to, as well as to ask advice from their local community”, he explained, adding that businesses use YaDig to engage their target demographic, to hear their customers’ voices and to increase brand awareness, footfall and overall revenue.
As far as the origin of the company name is concerned, “ya dig?” is an American slang phrase with a dual meaning of “do you understand?” as well as “do you like it?”
Yadig generates revenue by selling advertising to hospitality, F&B and similar businesses who are interested in engaging their target demographic.
YaDig is essentially a localized version of TripAdvisor for hotels, restaurants and all kinds of businesses who wish to connect with their local customers.
Unlike TripAdvisor, however, the venues have the potential to engage with people who live in close proximity to their businesses, thereby generating repeat business.
According to Mr. Miller, “We have one of the largest and certainly the fastest growing audiences of people who go out, spend money and are interested in events, deals and new venues in the Middle East.”
The company was founded in November 2010 by Emirati-American entrepreneur Saif Al-Zarouni. Saif was fed up with trying new restaurants based on one person’s positive recommendation, only to find out that it was not up to his expectations.
The Entrepreneurship Section is curated and edited by Seeqnce, a Beirut-based internet startup accelerator.