A bunch of us have been writing restaurant reviews for quite a while and seeing who gets the most comments. Of course I win!! Not been in too many restaurants recently so I thought I might write about the review websites themselves, comparing the two most famous:  口碑网, Koubei and 大众点评网, Dazhong Dianping here for VH.

I bet you all know them, but just in case you’re new in China here goes anyway – these intros are from Google(-ish).

Koubei means literally ‘word of mouth’ and it was based much around user comment. People also referred to it as Yahoo Koubei as it’s one of the websites linked to Taobao 淘宝. Now, it is China’s largest life services website, covering dining, entertainment, housing, housekeeping services and tourism covering pretty much every city ton village and hamlet in this huge country. Since its founding in June 2004, it has always been supporting and promoting the domestic life of the e-commerce service industries, as well as to meet all the wonderful and weird demands of Chinese people. The Founder Li Zhiguo 李治国 worked for Alibaba 阿里巴巴 for five years. (So, now you kind of know the reasons it’s relating to Taobao, huh)

大众 means ‘everybody’, and 点评 ‘comment’, so 大众点评网 means ‘Everybody’s comments’. As such it can be a bit of a free-for-all. It was founded in April 2003, is has become China’s largest city life Consumer Guide. It’s mainly focused on providing reviews and comments on food and beverage, leisure, entertainment, lifestyle, and an information-sharing platform for Chinese people. On top of all this, it is a very focussed city guide with more than 460,000 merchants in over 300 cities. Currently it is the most popular and the largest restaurant reviews website. It is also largest local search portal web2.0 style in China. Call it a cross between Craigslist and Google, in Chinese. CEO Zhang Tao 张涛 studied and worked in America for a few years.

In Beijing, 饭统网 Fantong seems more popular. In Shanghai, Dianping is much more used, and in Hangzhou, Koubei is the best. Membership is free for all of them and as a member there are discounts and special offers. Have a look at these websites before you head out to eat, or pay a little attention when you dine out or spare a second asking the staff, and you will save taxi fees or other little treats. Dianping includes merchants Hatsune, Banana Leaf, Westlake One, Double Star, Papa Johns, Zen, Burger King, Ladinna, Jura Restaurant, Iceason, Dairy Queen, Segafredo, etc. Koubei has Mingren Mingjia, Bro Ding’s Black Fish Restaurant, Xiang Wei Guan, Fengdu Restaurant, Yun Shui Yao, Yoho, and loads more. As you can see, there is a broad range of restaurants on offer.

Rumour says in Shanghai that even the best restaurants care about their reviews in Dianping. Newly-opened places beg for the diamond level reviewers attention, but woe-betide if those diamond Level reviewers write something terrible; there’ll be no business. A diamond level reviewer friend of mine once wrote a critical review of an Italian restaurant on Dianping and the owner emailed him, apologised profusely, and invited him for a free dinner there.

I hope the same will happen soon for VH reviewers.