Qype

Qype ​​[ kwaɪp ] was an online community, user-generated content whose primary, location-based reviews on a local basis were. The name is derived from the slogan "Quality or hype? " From. Qype ​​was closed October 30, 2013, and transfer the contents partly in the service of Yelp, who took over the portal.

History

Qype ​​was founded in November 2005 by Stephan Uhrenbacher and went in the summer of 2006, initially only for online German cities. The Qype GmbH was initially funded by venture capitalists Advent and Partech as a startup. In March 2007, Qype has been awarded the " Red Herring 100 Europe Award". There are now Qype in 9 languages ​​. The English version was the second language of Qype and launched in June 2007. Qype launched in January 2008 in France. Meanwhile, there are also versions in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Dutch and Turkish. In addition, Qype is also active in Ireland, Austria, Switzerland and Brazil. Content there are places around the world, currently in 166 countries. In August 2012, Qype has seen over 2.8 million posts to places around the world, in Europe alone, over 860,000 courses have been rated.

Founder Stephan Uhrenbacher retired in 2009 from the operating business from. Qype ​​takes the same approach as the website Yelp.com, which was founded in October 2004.

In March 2011, Qype took over the group discount website cooledeals.de and converted it into QypeDeals.de. On this page, users can buy from city to city, different vouchers for services from diverse suppliers. They can directly view and give the corresponding reviews.

In October 2012, the U.S. market leader Yelp took over all shares Qype. The purchase price was 50 million U.S. dollars for the last two million reviews, 15 million visitors. With the acquisition Yelp wants to expand, especially its position in Germany and Great Britain in his own words. As part of the acquisition, the group discount division QypeDeals is abandoned.

In October 2013 it was announced that the Qype brand is abandoned on 30 October 2013. The existing reviews and data should be transferred to a large extent on Yelp.

On October 30, 2013 at 13:00 clock the platform was finally shut down. When you call the website you will be automatically redirected to the home page of Yelp. This also happens when you call a Listing.

Functions

Registered members could review on Qype businesses, places and services, such as restaurants, hotels, attractions or even gyms and sports clubs. The entries contain address, opening times, phone number, location on a map, link to website and get more information. The entries were personal reviews and recommendations - provided - by users for users. The entries with a text comment and with up to five stars from 1 ( not good) to 5 stars ( excellent) were evaluated. Also, photos and videos could be uploaded.

Qype ​​used a category system and so demonstrated the best rated in a city bars, restaurants, fashion shops, garages etc. in a ranking, which was based on the reviews that the Qype user.

The Community

How comparable services Qype decreed a system to display the " online activities " of users. This took the form of medals, which could collect the users. Medals were awarded if the user had a certain number of articles written or reviewed in specific categories. Also, a group function with forums was available, so that users were able to share with each other. Users were able to furthermore send each contact requests, send private messages, upload photos and publish their recommendations on Facebook and Twitter. Liked a user review very well, he could give the author also a virtual compliment. In addition, users had the ability to store their personal favorites and to share, for example in the form of personal guides on specific topics or cities with other readers. It was also possible to "follow" to places, getting to be that is about updates on this place informed. Also on events in a city, users were able to find these and also create self Qype.

Mobile

For the iPhone and Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Nokia devices existed free applications with which you could display using localization services restaurants, banks and the like in its vicinity. This function was linked to Google Maps to easily find the desired location. In addition, users were able to check in at the destination, see if friends are nearby, and directly write reviews. The Qype Mobile App was selected by cnet UK for Best Travel App 2009 for the iPhone.

Qype ​​was also included in the free off-board navigation software Nokia Maps from version 3.04. Since 2011, the users of BMW ConnectedDrive services could access on their device Qype.

B2B

Also, companies could use the rating portal for advertising and marketing purposes. Qype ​​offered the best possibilities. For one thing, companies were able to register for free with the Qype. They were able can be assigned to the appropriate categories and present themselves online.

In addition, a fee were wide-ranging presentation options. With the so-called Qype premium membership companies were able to use numerous additional functions. How could their Qype Premium Members appearance not only present detailed (eg video, logo and News uploading ), they were also more visible in the Qype user community, as they were shown first in the search results. In addition, companies were able to create individual Qype Premium banner and use it to start your own banner campaign.

Statistics

In August 2008, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Online 0.89 million unique users a month and identified research slight growth in user numbers. This was just before Qype offers like Tagesspiegel.de ( 0.88 million unique users ) or n24.de ( 0.86 million unique users ).

The information community to determine the distribution of advertising media ( IVW) counted for Qype in October 2009, almost 7.7 million visits and 18.8 million page views. This was according to the old method of counting the best result of Qype, which still reached 4.2 million visits and 13.5 million page views in October 2008. Since the introduction of the new IVW counting with effect in November 2009 Qype reached Europe according to Google Analytics, although more than 17 million unique users per month, however, was the portal for the first eight months of 2010 an average of only 5.6 million unique visits per month due to a show the change in internal page structure and the new IVW count. For August 2010 Qype has seen about 7.2 million unique visits. In August 2012, Qype was used according to Google Analytics from 20 million unique users, the total came to 25 million visits. Only 4 million unique visitors were asked this of the Qype app. By his own admission, the company has reached the break in November 2008.

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