October 13, 2008

ALLRECIPES.COM, THE WORLD'S LARGEST ONLINE SOCIAL FOOD NETWORK, ARRIVES IN AUSTRALIA

Food enthusiasts of Australia rejoice! The world’s largest food-focused social networking website for everyday home cooks has launched in Australia and New Zealand.

Seattle, WA, October 13, 2008 — The new Allrecipes.com.au website allows millions of cooks of all skill levels to connect and inspire one another on the subject of food in a trusted and dynamic online community. The interactive site allows cooks to discover and share everyday food experiences through user reviews, food photos, original recipes, and personalised profile pages - all for free. The third Allrecipes site to launch builds on the success of the US and UK versions to offer a uniquely Australian cooking experience. Measurements, ingredients, reviews, recipes, photos, profiles and tags are all based on the contributions from the Australian cooking community to provide a highly relevant, authentic and time saving localised experience.

Whether it is a first attempt at cooking or preparing a dinner for ten, Allrecipes.com.au makes finding the perfect recipes fast and easy with simple-to-browse search categories, including ‘Total Cooking Time’, ‘Difficulty’, ‘Special Diets,’ and ‘Occasions’.

The site also provides cooks with the option for finding meal solutions based on what ingredients they have in the kitchen cupboard or fridge, or tagging friends about recipes they would like to share. Recently viewed recipes are saved in the member’s history or a ‘Favourites’ list can be created so those special dishes never get lost again. Once someone registers as an Allrecipes.com.au member and sets up a profile page, they can add their own reviews and photos to the site, to be shared with the larger Allrecipes.com.au community.

To introduce the audience to each other, each week Allrecipes will profile a home cook and outline their favourite dishes, family cooking traditions, cooking triumphs and tragedies, as well as hobbies and interests.

Says Lisa Sharples, president of Allrecipes.com, “The idea of home cooks around the globe being able to share their food experiences through the Internet is an exciting concept. The flagship Allrecipes.com site is experiencing phenomenal 40 per cent year-over-year growth and we envisage huge popularity for the new local site in Australia, another nation of food enthusiasts.”

Allrecipes’ interactive environment, engaged community of active home cooks and authentic, relevant food solutions has helped it surpass all other food sites in user traffic (comScore). Allrecipes’ user–generated, editorially–directed content provides holiday meal ideas, recipe reviews, photographs, advice articles, videos, an interactive users forum and a passionate community that have established the site as the go–to resource for cooking and entertaining ideas.

For more information or to arrange an interview with Lisa Sharples, please contact Zing:
Louise Imeson | louise@zing.net.au | 0420 235119
Darcie O’Malley | darcie@zing.net.au | 0450 145812

About Allrecipes.com
Founded in 1997, Allrecipes.com is the world’s largest, most comprehensive social network for food enthusiasts. Allrecipes allows people to easily find and share food ideas through user generated recipes, ratings, reviews, photos and profiles based on common interests, needs and experiences. The site averages 12 million unique visitors monthly. Allrecipes is part of The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., a global multi-brand media and marketing company that educates, entertains and connects audiences around the world. The company is dedicated to providing its customers with the inspiration, ideas and tools to simplify and enrich their lives. www.allrecipes.com.