SingTel’s Optus acquires Australian food review site Eatability for US$6.2M

Optus, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SingTel, announced in a statement today that it has acquired Australian food review site Eatability for A$6M (US$6.2M).

Eatability was launched in 2003 by Celeste and Hui Ong. It is one of Australia’s leading restaurant review sites, containing more than 235,000 reviews and 37,000 restaurant listings.

This acquisition mirrors SingTel’s purchase of HungryGoWhere, Singapore’s foremost food portal, for US$9.4M in May.

The statement reads: “The acquisition is central to Optus’ strategy of providing more localised digital content and services for the Australian market and will be a strong foundation for future transaction-based business and mobile services in the lifestyle category.”

Austin R. Bryan, vice president, Communities & Eco-systems at Group Digital L!fe, a division of Optus, said, “Over the last nine years, Eatability has established itself as a leading, trusted website for restaurant reviews and ratings and is a key Optus partner, providing content for our Optus Go Places mobile app.

With the acquisition, Eatability will extend its services to smartphones, introduce more personalization and contexually relevant content, and improve its user experience.