Tastebuds: Best Foodie Friends

What Tastebuds: Best Foodie Friends does

Tastebuds: Best Foodie Friends is a privately held consumer mobile application operated by We Are Tastebuds, Inc., a Delaware-incorporated corporation with a headquarters registered in Dover, Delaware, and a listed operating presence in Brooklyn, NY. The company employs between 1 and 10 people and has no disclosed parent, institutional investors, or funding rounds.

The company's sole product is a single mobile app published on Apple App Store (ID 6737422799) and Google Play (com.wearetastebuds.tastebuds). The app is built around a social-network model in which users invite contacts to form a personal community of "food connoisseurs" and exchange restaurant referrals filtered by location, cuisine, and price point, supplemented by photos, ratings, and user-generated reviews. Underlying technology consists of a mobile application platform with location-based services, social-networking features, and user-generated content capabilities; no API, SDK, or proprietary AI/ML components are disclosed.

Go-to-market is product-led growth with self-serve onboarding and no explicit sales function; distribution is entirely through the two global app stores. The company operates a freemium model in name only — no pricing, premium tier, advertising mechanics, or monetization details are disclosed in any source material. The target segment is individual food enthusiasts and social diners seeking peer-trusted recommendations rather than anonymous review aggregation. Ownership is independent and founder-led per the available records, with no M&A, partnership, or regulatory actions disclosed.

Name

Tastebuds: Best Foodie Friends

Legal name

We Are Tastebuds, Inc.

Website

https://wearetastebuds.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Tastebuds: Best Foodie Friends, operated by We Are Tastebuds, Inc., is a private consumer mobile app that lets users build a personal community of trusted friends to exchange restaurant recommendations, photos, and reviews filtered by location, cuisine, and price.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. App Distribution: The company operates a mobile application distributed through Apple App Store and Google Play. No explicit revenue model details are disclosed in available sources.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Tastebuds is a consumer mobile application that delivers restaurant referrals from people users know and trust, filtered by location, cuisine, and price. Users build their own communities of food connoisseurs, share dining experiences via photos and reviews, and discover what is trending at restaurants in their area. The service is offered free via the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Product overview

Tastebuds is a single, unified mobile application (not a platform-plus-modules architecture). The sole product is the Tastebuds app itself, which provides restaurant referral services through a social network model. The app combines location-based discovery, user-generated reviews with photos, and community features to deliver personalized restaurant recommendations from trusted connections.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Tastebuds Mobile App A consumer mobile application that delivers restaurant referrals from people users know and trust, filtered by location, cuisine, and price. Users build personal communities of food connoisseurs, share photos and reviews of dining experiences, and discover what is trending at restaurants in their area. Available free on iOS and Android.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• The Infatuation: The Infatuation is a restaurant recommendation platform offering curated reviews, city guides, and a social/discovery app. It competes with Tastebuds in the trusted restaurant discovery space, with a more editorial-driven approach.
• Yelp: Yelp is the dominant consumer restaurant review platform, offering crowdsourced reviews, photos, and ratings from a large user base. Tastebuds directly competes by offering a more curated, trust-based alternative to Yelp's anonymous reviews model.
• Foursquare: Foursquare provides location-based venue discovery with tips, photos, and social recommendations. Tastebuds overlaps with Foursquare's check-in and discovery functionality, though Tastebuds focuses on trusted peer network recommendations rather than public tips.
• Beli: Beli is a social restaurant ranking app where users track and compare restaurants they have visited, sharing lists with friends. Beli is a direct competitor in the social food discovery category, with a similar network-effect-driven value proposition.

Broad incumbents

• Instagram: Instagram functions as a major channel for sharing restaurant photos and reviews among friends via Stories, posts, and DMs. It is a broad incumbent where much trusted peer restaurant recommendation activity already occurs organically.
• OpenTable: OpenTable is the dominant restaurant reservation and discovery platform. While it focuses primarily on booking, its restaurant discovery and review features place it in the broader competitive set for Tastebuds.
• Tripadvisor: Tripadvisor is the largest travel and restaurant review platform globally, offering user-generated reviews and ratings. As a broad incumbent, it competes with Tastebuds in the restaurant discovery and recommendation space.
• Resy: Resy is a restaurant reservation and discovery platform with curated recommendations and social features. It competes with Tastebuds in the restaurant discovery space, with a stronger emphasis on booking and hospitality partnerships.
• Google Maps: Google Maps offers integrated restaurant discovery, reviews, photos, and trending lists as a feature within its dominant navigation platform. As a broad incumbent, it provides free restaurant discovery that competes with Tastebuds' core use case.

Emerging players

• Untappd: Untappd is a social app for rating and sharing beer and brewery experiences with friends. While focused on beer rather than restaurants, it shares Tastebuds' model of trusted peer recommendations and user-generated content in the food and beverage space.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/we-are-tastebuds

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Tastebuds: Best Foodie Friends