Food porn is horrible. The way it makes you hungry even though you’ve just had lunch, or the way that overpriced plate of Eggs Benedict seems to glisten on your phone screen when honestly, you just want to spend $2 on some rice. But it has taken over the Internet, and with YummyPin, it might never go away.
YummyPin, a Singapore-based social media platform that’s helmed by serial entrepreneur Edward Au, is basically what you get when you mesh Burple with Pinterest — a daily feed of gorgeous looking food porn available on desktop and as a mobile app. You can pin your awesome food photos to a personal board, which can be viewed by your followers or by the public. What you get at the end of the day is an amazing spread of food you want to put in your mouth.
A mobile Pinterest dedicated to food — what more do you want?
Of course, looking for a good eatery isn’t just about the pictures. Each photo also comes with information about that restaurant, your personal review, and the price of that dish or meal. Viewers can also like or comment on each picture.
To enhance the experience offered by their platform, YummyPin has employed the help of several bloggers, whom we all know have tons to say about their meals. Their blogposts are integrated into the platform for interested users to read more about each eatery.
A personal touch comes in the form of a wishlist, which is my favourite feature. When I find something I want to try — as I often do when I look through my friends’ Instagram photos — I can add them to the wishlist. This is then saved into my personal profile, leaving me free to finally put my Evernote list of food places to rest. Yummypin even comes with a location-based feature, which will pull out great eateries near my current location.
What makes Yummypin even better is that you can get discounts from the app through the YummyStore. Simply select a pass from a list of available deals from the YummyStore, and you will be shown a QR code that you can present to merchants upon redemption.
Do note, however, that this feature isn’t available on the current mobile app, and is not explicitly stated or promoted on their website. Official screenshots of YummyStore also look vastly different from the app I currently have on my iPhone, so we may have a pretty sweet update on the way.
Verdict: 4/5
You can’t really fault a Pinterest for food, especially when it’s already filled with many great food pictures and places. However, as a new user, I was disappointed that I had no way of knowing if any of my friends were on YummyPin as well.
It’ll also be a challenge to get people off platforms like Instagram — where most food porn goes — and onto independent platforms like this one. The potential update, which offers users discount passes to get great deals, may be a gamechanger. Food porn with discounts could well be every hungry Singaporean’s wet dream.
Now excuse me while I get myself a snack.
YummyPin is available in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Vietnam, and can be downloaded via the App Store and Google Play.