Washington, D.C. is full of beer enthusiasts who like to share their latest favorite brews and bars with each other. And the District is packed with bars competing for those customers willing to spend more for the beer they're looking to drink. All of this means that beer-centric social media app Untappd has a primed market for its new Untappd for Business feature.
"We want to help bottle shops get better at knowing what customers want. The flipside is we can help customers find the beers they want and get the hard-to-find beers they're looking for," Untappd co-founder Greg Avola said in an interview with DC Inno. "We help connect both sides of the equation."
The New York City-based Untappd has about three million users worldwide who rate the beers and bars they drink at and explore potential new breweries and local beers. Avola and co-founder Tim Mather started Untappd five years ago, but only went full-time at the beginning of the year though after Untappd merged with beer and wine rating and analysis app Next Glass.
Untappd for Business is the first big project since the merger. For $600 a year, bars, restaurants and breweries can look at data on how customers drink and rate their beer, set up exclusive alerts and specials for Untappd users and generally do abetter job curating beers and events while getting word out faster and to more people.
"Our users will get notifications about the beers they like and where to find them," Avola said. "They'll have more accurate results from our verified venues."
The bars and other favored spots for beer aficionados are getting more competitive all the time and want to stand out, according to Avola. Breweries as well are keen to get their hands on the customer data that Untappd has collected because they want to get ahead of new trends and styles. Beer takes a while to make and breweries like Flying Dog that Untappd has worked with are keen to avoid wasting time on beer that people are rejecting.
"There's an Etsy effect where people support local breweries and and want them to succeed," Avola said. "The platform gives those breweries a deeper analytics to help, and is a lot cheaper than the millions breweries spend on focus groups. It's all about making better beer.
