Yummypets is a social media network for pets. It allows members to create social profiles for their pets, store photos and videos, build communities and access specific animal related content and services. Yummypets is a subsidiary of French company Octopepper which is headquartered in Bordeaux.
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History
Octopepper co-founders Matthieu Glayrouse and Mathieu Chollon launched the Beta version of Yummypets in 2012. Both founders believed that despite the enormous popularity of pet ownership and animal web content, pet lovers did not have a specific social platform for them to ‘geek-out’ on. Matthieu Glayrouse and Mathieu Chollon felt that posting pet photos on generalist social networks often led to negative stereotyping and stigmatising of the user, often unfairly. The Beta version was based on the idea of Hot or Not for pets. The competitive game mechanic (called, ‘Yummy or Not’) remains a popular feature on Yummypets. Soon after launch, Yummypets attracted media interest from many French bloggers and media outlets such as FranceTVInfo, L’Express, Mon Quottidien, L’Obs, RTL, helping membership grow quickly in Yummypets’ native France.
The company received Series A funding of €1.5 million in 2012 from NewFund and used the investment to enhance the feature set of the website and launch a range of mobile apps.
In 2013 Yummypets entered into advertising agreements with brands such as Whiskas, Pedigree, Zolux and Feliway. It also launched an English language version.
Wearables
In 2014 the company joined the Orange FAB France Accelerator Program. Following this introduction, the company has worked closely with the mobile phone company, Orange France in the joint development of an internet connected pet collar which allows pet owners to monitor the location and vitality metrics of their pet. This data is integrated with pets’ Yummypets profiles. Commercial launch of the Yummypets Connected Collar is scheduled for late 2015, early 2016, making Yummypets the first social media company to offer a custom designed wearable technology product with deep platform integration, ahead of Facebook and Twitter.
Pet Stars
Some of the social web’s most popular pets have joined Yummypets including Nala the Cat, Oskar the Blind Cat, MJ the Beagle and Sneezy the Cat.
By June 2015 the company claimed to have 500,000 pet members.
Product description
The platform allows users to create profiles for each of their pets. For each pet the member can upload photos and videos and organise these into albums.
The platform offers other features such as the ability to make connections with other members and follow their activity via a newsfeed, create special interest discussion groups called ‘Teams’ and invite other members to join and contribute, a Missing Pet service to help find lost pets, and a Memorial service to commemorate the life of pets after they have passed away.
All users can browse pet related content published to Yummypets and to the Yummypets Magazine by the company's editorial team.