In Conversation with Wong Hoong An, co-founder of HungryGoWhere

Food is one of the favourite pastimes for most Singaporeans. To cater for the constant need for the consumers to seek out new restaurants and food places, HungryGoWhere is a search engine that allows users to find out the type of food, pricing, location and other relevant information within a country. Although they started in Singapore with a test market, they have quickly made a headway to the markets overseas. The site also provides an array of services from food delivery to an iPhone app. So, we have Wong Hoong An, one of the co-founders of HungryGoWhere to tell us their story and how they are moving ahead forward.

BL: Hi Hoong An, great to have you here on SGE. What did you do before starting HungryGoWhere?
Hoong An: I was working as a strategist in an IT company.

BL: What inspire you and your team to come up with HungryGoWhere?
Hoong An: We felt that there was a market need for a database where the consumer can find information on F&B establishments and an site where F&B establishments can use to profile themselves.

BL: Can you briefly tell us about what HungryGoWhere do and how does it help consumers to seek out food places in Singapore and elsewhere?
Hoong An: HungryGoWhere®.com is a search engine that allows users to search for the food based on their requirements such as cuisine types, price range, location, what others recommend the place for etc. Thus, HungryGoWhere®.com helps you to sieve out irrelevant places that one might not be interested in order to find your ideal dining destination.

BL: What are the three most interesting features on HungryGoWhere that you would like a new user who register on your site to know?
Hoong An: Firstly, if you sign up for a member and tag your favorite restaurants, you will be informed when that restaurant has a deal.

Secondly, we have launched our KL, Sydney, Melbourne and Hong Kong beta sites, so do check them out before travelling overseas

Finally, for those that want to eat in, HungryGoWhere®.com offers a wide range of cuisine that we can deliver right to your doorstep under the HungryGoWhere®.com delivery section.

BL: What strategies have you adopted in growing a user base and the database of restaurants and other food places for HungryGoWhere?
Hoong An: We have a full-time staff that looks into updating our establishments on a daily basis. In terms of users, we are still on the growth path and this is attributed to partnerships as well as real world marketing. We do a significant bit of search engine optimization to tap the online community, work with telecommunication companies and handset providers to get the mobile market, as well as work with real world events such as the Singapore Beer Festival in order to increase our branding.

BL: Other than online advertising which is the starting revenue model for HungryGoWhere, have you all considered implementing other business models into the site?
Hoong An: Definitely, monetization is a very important part of a dot com’s survival, especially given that external funding these days are harder to come by. Thus, we have monetized the site with a real world business such as our food delivery and have gone into building technologies as well as consulting F&B establishments on their marketing programs.

BL: Will you create a smart phone app for HungryGoWhere, given that there are now smart phone apps which help mobile users to locate food places around the area they are in?
Hoong An: Yes, we are working with all the major handsets to do so. As of last count, HungryGoWhere®.com’s iPhone application is the number one lifestyle application and even won the first prize in the SingTel Consumer Mobile Applications competition

BL: HungryGoWhere has expanded in other markets recently, for example, Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia and Australia. What influenced your team to head overseas and what are the challenges involved in expanding to other markets?
Hoong An: Singapore was a test-bed, and once we found that it could be a viable business model we realized that we can replicate this overseas in order to diversify and increase our revenue base.

BL: What are the three most important traits of an entrepreneur?
Hoong An: Persistence. I always joke that my parents did not teach me how to quit, and I believe that most businesses fail because the founders gave it up too early. In tough times, I also believe that is a psychological boost if one believes in a God.

BL: Hoong An, thank you for the interview. Let us know of any new developments and news on HungryGoWhere. Meanwhile, good luck on your venture overseas.

Wong Hoong An is responsible for the Sales and Marketing, and Finance at HungryGoWhere.com. Prior to being a founding member of one of Singapore’s most popular food websites, Hoong An was the Head of Strategy at a mainboard-listed IT company which built defense technologies. As the Head of Strategy, Hoong An was responsible for business planning, market communications and investor relations. Hoong An also spent about two years with the Ministry of Defense as a research analyst. He was previously an intern at Capitol Hill in Washington DC where he was exposed to policy-making and was also an award winning sales person at Southwestern Company. Hoong An is a member of the International Thespian Honor Society and has a pension for the Fine Arts. While he graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Economics in 1998, his learning in the real world only began after that and he regards himself as a student for life.

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