EZTABLE

src: www.inside.com.tw

EZTABLE (Chinese: ???; pinyin: Ji?nd?nzhu?) is an online restaurant reservation platform, and the largest of its kind in Asia. Founded in Taipei, Taiwan, in Apr. 2008, its mission is to create the world's largest dining program. Similar to OpenTable (an American public company) in the U.S., EZTABLE allows its users to search, reserve, and prepay online. Reservations are free and can be made online via personal computer, tablet computer and smartphone. When users book online through EZTABLE, they have access to competitive pricing at the top restaurants in Asia.

Since its founding, EZTABLE has expanded to over 10,000 restaurants in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia. The platform now has more than 2 million members and more than 600,000 monthly active users. Over 10 million diners have booked reservations using its platform.

Video EZTABLE

History

EZTABLE was co-founded by Alex Chen, Brooky Yen, Jerry Yen, and Peter Hsieh in April 2008. OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation company in the U.S., inspired the four. They found that consumers in Asia still made reservations via telephone, and decided to start their own online restaurant reservation business in Taiwan.

In Aug. 2008, the website began operations serving a limited selection of restaurants. EZTABLE focused on O2O (Online-to-Offline) strategies, aiming to attract users online and direct them to physical stores in the offline realm. EZTABLE opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Taipei's Nankang Software Park in March 2016. In the store, customers can make reservations, learn about the company's two apps, and scan QR codes for EZTABLE gift cards.

In 2012, AppWorks, a famous accelerator in Asia, and Rose Park Advisors, an investment firm founded by Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen and his son Matthew Christensen, invested US$1.5 million in EZTABLE.

In January 2015, the company disclosed that it had raised a US$5 million funding round led by MediaTek, with participation from UMC, food conglomerate I-Mei, AppWorks and Rose Park Advisors.

In 2016, Japanese hotel and restaurant reservation company Ikyu invested US$8.8 million in EZTABLE, and the companies hope to promote tourism between their two countries.

Maps EZTABLE

Services

EZTABLE allows users to search for restaurants based on time, date, location and cuisine. To book a table through EZTABLE's user-friendly platform, customers complete a two-part process consisting of reservation and prepayment for the meal. Reserving and prepaying through EZTABLE ensures that customers enjoy a business class experience at their restaurant of choice. Users can book restaurants online through the company's website and on its two applications available for iOS and Android. The service also provides restaurant owners with e-commerce services, including reservation management, table management, and marketing analysis.