Taste

What Taste does

Taste Labs, Inc. is a privately held, New York-based consumer entertainment discovery platform founded in 2018 by John Lin (CEO) and Justin Messina (CTO). The company operates Taste, a free application that delivers personalized movie and TV show recommendations by matching each user with peers who share similar viewing preferences, rather than relying on conventional algorithmic or commercially-biased scoring. The platform serves over 800,000 registered users across more than 150 countries and is available as a web application and on iOS and Android app stores.

The core technology is a proprietary taste-matching algorithm that compares a user's rating history and review patterns against those of other users to generate personalized recommendations. The catalog layer is powered by The Movie Database (TMDb), which supplies metadata, cast, and images, while streaming availability data is sourced from JustWatch, enabling integration with major streaming services including Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and Max. User taste profiles strengthen as users rate more content, add attributes, and engage with reviews.

The business model is freemium with three disclosed revenue streams: premium subscriptions (managed through iTunes, Google Play, or the Taste website), advertising, and user-funded support. Taste positions itself as 'completely independent and funded by its own users,' having raised approximately $947K across six equity crowdfunding tranches on StartEngine between 2018 and November 2023. The company is headquartered at 833 Broadway, Floor 2, New York, with additional staff in California, Canada, and London, and reports 1-10 employees.

Name

Taste

Legal name

Taste Labs, Inc.

Website

https://taste.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Taste is a free consumer entertainment discovery platform that delivers personalized movie and TV show recommendations by matching users with peers who share similar viewing preferences. Founded in 2018, it serves 800,000+ registered users across 150+ countries via web and mobile apps.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Content Discovery & Recommendation Software

akta.pro primary industry

Topic/Interest-Based Content Discovery Apps (MPACAKAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Music Discovery & Curation Platforms (Recommendations, Playlists) (MPAIACAH)

Keywords

• Movie recommendations
• Tv show discovery
• Content recommendation platform
• Streaming availability aggregator
• Personalized entertainment discovery

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Premium Subscriptions: The platform offers premium subscription accounts that can be managed through iTunes, Google Play Store, or the website. Users can upgrade for additional features.
2. Advertising: Third-party advertisements are delivered through the service, contextually related to user location, usage behavior, or other provided information.
3. User-Funded Model: The company states it is completely independent and funded by its own users, indicating a community-supported revenue approach alongside other streams.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Taste operates a free entertainment discovery platform (web and mobile) that uses a proprietary taste-matching algorithm to connect users with other users who share similar viewing preferences, then recommends their favorite movies and TV shows. The platform integrates streaming-availability data from JustWatch and metadata from The Movie Database (TMDb), and also delivers contextual third-party advertising within the service.

Product overview

Taste is a free entertainment discovery platform that consolidates streaming content recommendations across movies and TV shows. Its core product is the Taste platform (available as a web app and mobile app) that uses a proprietary taste-matching algorithm to connect users with other users who share their unique viewing preferences, generating personalized recommendations from those peers rather than from algorithmic scoring. The platform covers content across major streaming services and aggregates availability data from JustWatch while sourcing its catalog metadata from The Movie Database (TMDb).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Taste (Web App) Free web application that lets users rate movies and TV shows, discover content recommended by users with the most similar viewing preferences, browse curated categories and trending content, and access a personalized streaming guide.
• Taste (Mobile App) Native mobile application available on iOS and Android that provides the same taste-matching and personalized movie and TV recommendation features as the web platform, enabling users to rate, review, and discover content on the go.

Quantifiable outcome

• 800,000+ registered users
• +3 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability2 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• The Movie Database (TMDb)coreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2018Taste is powered by The Movie Database (TMDb), which provides the underlying movie and TV show metadata, cast information, images, and content database that drives the platform's recommendation engine.
• JustWatchcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2018Taste is powered by JustWatch, which provides streaming availability data showing users where they can watch recommended movies and TV shows across various streaming platforms.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Letterboxd: Social movie journal where users rate, review, and discover films based on like-minded cinephiles. Closest direct peer to Taste, sharing the user-driven rating/review model and taste-matching ethos in the same movie-discovery vertical.
• Mubi: Curated film discovery service blending editorial selection with social and personalization features for cinephiles. Comparable to Taste in targeting film-lovers with discovery beyond mainstream recommendations, though Mubi adds a streaming/subscription layer.
• Reelgood: Streaming-availability aggregator that surfaces where to watch movies and TV across services with personalized recommendations. Directly comparable to Taste in using JustWatch-style availability data to power a unified discovery experience across streaming platforms.
• TV Time: Social TV tracking and discovery app where users log episodes, write reviews, and get recommendations based on their viewing history. Overlaps with Taste on the TV-discovery side and on community-driven taste matching, with similar freemium app-store distribution.

Emerging players

• Likewise: Personalized content recommendations across movies, TV, books, and podcasts based on user taste profiles. Smaller and earlier-stage than Taste in some respects, with a comparable cross-category ambition but weaker traction to date.

Broad incumbents

• IMDb: Amazon-owned dominant movie/TV database with ratings, reviews, watchlists, and recommendations. Established broad incumbent in the same space, explicitly called out by Taste as a differentiator target on commercial bias and personalization depth.
• Rotten Tomatoes: Major movie review aggregator combining critic and audience scores with editorial content. A larger, established player in movie discovery explicitly named by Taste as a comparator its taste-matching approach aims to disrupt.
• Fandango: Movie ticketing and discovery platform with reviews, ratings, and theatrical showtimes. Named by Taste as part of the established set its decentralized peer-review model differentiates against; broader scope but weaker personalization.
• Metacritic: Aggregated critic and user scores across movies, TV, music, and games. A broad incumbent in the review-aggregation space that Taste's taste-matching model positions against, particularly on commercial bias and personalization.

Others

• JustWatch: Streaming availability search engine and consumer app that powers Taste's where-to-watch data. Functions simultaneously as a data partner and an adjacent consumer product with overlapping discovery value, making it a thematic peer as much as a direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/tasteprofile
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/taste-labs/jobs
• Xx.com/taste_app

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Taste