Type of business Private company Slogan(s) Your Opinions Matter Founder Faisal Farooqui Type Privately held company | Headquarters Mumbai India Website mouthshut.com Founded 2000 | |
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Type of site social media consumer reviews Industry business ratings and reviews, product discovery | ||
MouthShut.com is a user-generated content and consumer review web site.
Contents
- Background
- Relevance of user generated reviews and MouthShutcoms impact
- Partnership with Google
- MouthShut I Ate Here Awards
- SMS Reviews and User Interface
- MouthShut in academic research
- MouthShut controversy
- Blocked by an Indian ISP
- Supreme Court petition and verdict
- References
On April 29, 2013, MouthShut.com filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India to nullify India's Information Technology Rules 2011. The verdict was in favor of the petitioners Mouthshut.com v. Union of India
MouthShut.com's work has been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, and London's Financial Times . MouthShut.com's founder and CEO Faisal Farooqui has been named among the Top Contemporary Entrepreneurs in India.
Background
MouthShut.com was founded in 2000 by Faisal Farooqui. The website hosts reviews of restaurants, movies, FMCG goods, travel destinations, banks etc. The Indian blog contentsutra.com reports that MouthShut.com pioneered the user-generated content space in India Mouthshut has been featured in The Economic Times, Times of India, CNBC, NDTV, and Star News.
The company was founded in Mumbai (Bombay), India and according to India's largest newspaper, The Times of India, MouthShut.com is the leader in the user-generated content space in India.
Relevance of user generated reviews and MouthShut.com's impact
Asian Age newspaper stated that most Indians online are referring to MouthShut for first hand product reviews and product information
In a CNBC- TV 18 interview MouthShut.com's CEO stated that MouthShut.com has more than 2 million (2005) registered users.
Partnership with Google
MouthShut is part of Google's snippet program. This Rich Data Format revolution, allows Google to display product ratings from MouthShut.com directly in Google Search result.
MouthShut.com participates in Google's AdSense Publishing Program. Although this is not an exclusive arrangement with Google, MouthShut's use of AdSense is a Google case-study.
MouthShut I Ate Here Awards
In 2012, MouthShut.com launched the I Ate Here Awards to recognize Best Restaurants in popular cuisine categories. The awards, presented as a well-designed framed certificate are based on thousands of user reviews and ratings submitted on MouthShut.com and cover categories such as Indian Food, Chinese Food, Continental Food, South Indian Food etc. In 2012 MouthShut.com employees physically presented the awards by visiting restaurants and eateries in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Jaipur, Pune and Lucknow.
SMS Reviews and User Interface
In 2008, MouthShut.com announced the MouthShut Mobile Service. Users can send SMS-based reviews. Any cell phone user can post on MouthShut through short messaging by sending it to +919769696967. Mouthshut discontinued this feature in 2013 after launching its mobile app. In 2010 MouthShut.com launched a revamp of its user interface and has local content organized around 20 cities in India. .
MouthShut in academic research
Due to the depth and variety of original content published, MouthShut.com has been used by researchers in the corporate and academia to understand consumer behavior.
A number of articles and MouthShut's content has been used to cite consumer and culture pattern, such as Advertisement And Promotions: An Imc Perspective by Alan D'souza Kruti Shah (Paperback - 2008)
A book published by Klett Verlag GmBH in Germany included reviews from MouthShut.com as additional reading material. This was used in Germany for school-level reading material.
MouthShut.com has been used as a case study in Consumer Behavior (Wayne et. all, 2008)
MouthShut controversy
To protect its review writers from manipulation from brands, Mouthshut has a stated goal that it will never reveal the identity of any of its writers unless requested by a court order. Mouthshut.com has been vocal in safeguarding the consumers interest and hence moved the Supreme Court against sec. 66A of the IT Act as well as reading down of the Rules for taking down of content.
In 2006, India's Financial Express reported that Yahoo and MSN were in acquisition talks with Mouthshut.com However, this was denied by the CEO of Mouthshut who said they are just looking for business expansion.
Blocked by an Indian ISP
On Feb 3. 2014, a regional Indian ISP, Beam Fiber blocked access to MouthShut.com for the entire city of Bangalore and Hyderabad. As a result more than half a million people could not access mouthshut.com. On Feb 5, 2014, Beam Fiber unblocked the website. Indian laws do not allow ISPs to block a website unless ordered by the Department of Telecom. MouthShut.com has termed the block as illegal and has sought compensation from the ISP. MouthShut.com highlighted this illegal blockage in its petition to the Supreme Court of India.
Supreme Court petition and verdict
On April 29, 2013, MouthShut.com filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India to nullify India's Information Technology Rules 201. The petition pleads to the Supreme Court that the IT Rules, 2011 should be struck down because they are so vague that it cannot be predicted with certainty as to what is prohibited and what is permitted. A consequence of this law would be the delegation of essential executive function to private parties like MouthShut.com to censor and restrict free speech of citizens or else face legal challenge for user's content.
On Monday, March 23, 2015, Mouthshut.com won the case again Union of India and the article 66A has been struck down by the Supreme Court of India.