Methods Website, Mobile Apps | Founder Eric Brent | |
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Motto The Healthy Eating Guide Formation November 1999; 17 years ago (1999-11) Location Santa Monica, California Products Restaurant guide, Travel guides, Recipes Fields Vegetarianism, Veganism Similar Physicians Committee for Respo, Farm Sanctuary, Mercy for Animals, California Milk Processo, People for the Ethical Treatmen | ||
HappyCow is an online service that lists sources of vegan, vegetarian and healthy food. Access is free to users, who can also provide content. From the original restaurant listings and reviews, HappyCow has expanded to feature information on recipes, travel, health, and other topics.
Contents
Background and content
HappyCow was founded in 1999 to create a world guide to vegetarian and vegan restaurants. That objective has since been refined to be to assist, "people everywhere to find vegan, vegetarian, and healthy food". User access is free to encourage crowd-sourced content provision. The number of listings has expanded to over 50,000 businesses in over 175 countries around the world. Reviews of these listings number over 150,000. Restaurants remain the core listings group and are categorised as either, vegan, vegetarian, or veg-friendly. The initial definition for veg-friendly was based on a minimum menu content being at least 60% vegetarian. This has since been modified into a more flexible set of guidelines based on the alternative availability of vegan food in the area. HappyCow's orientation in general has gravitated over time to be increasingly pro-vegan.
Other listings additionally include health food shops, juice bars, vegan friendly accommodation, social and activity groups, catering operations and other entities with consideration for animal compassion. Subscription for a free newsletter is available. The website has well established forum and blog sections allowing users to publish relevant material.
The HappyCow Youtube channel was launched in 2012. Features have covered numerous vegan and vegetarian events worldwide, and included interviews.
Financing
HappyCow is a free-to-use, not-for-profit organization in nature but without 501-c status. Income generated is recycled into the running of the operation. Early sources of website funding were advertisement, business sponsorship, and user contributions. The worldwide trend to mobile computing has allowed a revenue stream of sales of native IOS and Android apps. In 2014 The HappyCow Cookbook: Recipes from Top-Rated Vegan Restaurants around the World was published for sale.