Taping into the creator’s economy
About Tastemade
Tastemade is a multimedia company that, since 2012, produces and shares original content about food, travels, and lifestyle. They are the primary source for a new generation of mobile and digital native consumers. After five funding rounds and looking to expand, Tastemade acquired ChefsFeed in December 2020.
Services
UX/UI design
Backend Development
Frontend Development
Product Management
Project Management
QA
Engagement
+1 years
Product Studio
Platform
Django
React
The Challenge
Tastemade's business model was supported by brand sponsorship and their streaming network Tastemade+. With ChefsFeed's acquisition, Tastemade now had a structured platform that enabled them to combine those two models into a third: creating an online platform marketplace for content creators.
They had cooking experts among their existing creators (around 15% of the USA's creator economy), a faithful audience (around 100 million views per month), and a solid global brand to leverage. This newly acquired platform enabled them to bring it all together into one single place where users could find, connect with, support, and buy from those content creators.
Tastemade's objective was to extend its services into a single place where chefs and other creators could monetize their abilities without moving to more generic platforms (YouTube or Patreon). To accomplish this, they needed to:
• Provide a niche platform for Makers that prioritize online content and virtual experiences.
• Integrate ChefsFeed’s relevant functionality into Tastemade and disable those that weren’t aligned with the product vision.
• Review and enhance ChefsFeed’s user experience, making it look and feel like Tastemade’s.
The solution
XmartLabs was ChefsFeed's technical partner at the time of its acquisition, so it was only natural we helped them make the transition from a technical standpoint. We knew the systems, process, and product inside out, so we gave Tastemade advice from the get-go.
After the December acquisition, we helped Tastemade's team with the integration of both brands. This wasn't only a look and feel issue; it involved several business and strategic decisions. We especially helped decide which ChefsFeed functionalities to cut out to prioritize virtual experiences.
They also had to decide to either leave the existing code or build a new one from scratch. Together, we concluded that it was best to forgo ChefsFeed code and create something completely new for the page's front-end. We decided on a front-end done entirely in React, which we developed and tested, to further improve its usability.
We also introduced their team to Agile methodologies for project managing, reducing iteration times, optimizing time management, and improving overall engineering efforts. XmartLabs’s team was on product development and management, QA, and design system roles throughout the merge of these two brands.
Experience Marketplace
An experiences catalog based on user preferences such as dietary restrictions, city, event date, etc. Besides suggesting upcoming experiences, users can search for interesting experiences to attend to and makers to follow and connect with.
Makers Discovery
Users can look for makers and connect, support, and consume their content and experiences. End-users can learn more about chefs and subscribe to their plans.
The Maker Dashboard
One single place where chefs can easily manage their content, followers, notifications. Creating experiences (live stream or IRL), managing their subscription plans, reviewing monthly revenue and payouts, checking their inbox, and posting on their personal feed are just some of the functionality the dashboard offers.
The result
We successfully integrated ChesFeed's user profiles, ticketed experiences, live streams, subscriptions, and data into Tastemade.com. Some features were retired to give virtuality center stage.
We build a platform that allows content creators to be discovered, engage with fans and new audiences, and create subscription packages to sell several benefits (exclusive content, secret recipes, recommendations, etc.). On the flipside, makers will promote, sell, conduct live events, access worldwide payment options, manage guests, and own post-event metrics.
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