Need a Bite on Your Study Break? Students Can Feast off the Web
Meals are Keystrokes Away as Food.com Links Hungry Campuses with Local
Restaurants; Launches Student-Focused Campaign to Give Back to College
Communities
(CPWIRE) SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- October 25, 1999 -- Hungry? Need a break from studying, but no time to go out? You`re not alone. According to industry research group Technomic, more Americans - including students - are getting their food ''to go'' than any other way these days. For the first time last year, takeout occasions outnumbered on-premise occasions at restaurants by 54 percent to 46 percent. And takeout and delivery sales of food reached a whopping $126 billion in 1997, and are projected to grow to $195 billion over the next 10 years.
The only thing that may be growing faster than our takeout and delivery habits is the use of the Internet on campuses. College students represent one of today`s most wired markets. An estimated 95 percent of university-age students will be online by the time the class of 2003 graduates, spending more than $4 billion a year, according to market research firm Jupiter Communications. And currently, 50 percent are estimated to be online everyday.
Enter Food.com, the Internet`s leading restaurant meal takeout and delivery service. Now, students don`t even need to look up from their computers to get food for those late night study sessions. They can order directly from their favorite local restaurants and have meals delivered right to their door.
Here`s how it works. Busy students can log onto the Food.com Web site at www.food.com, and easily browse through hundreds of local restaurant menus before ordering. Food.com allows them to order what they want and have it delivered when they want it - whether it`s right then, hours later, or even weeks away. Food.com also provides information on when the restaurant is open and what type of payment is accepted - all of which is a lot easier than blindly calling around, and much more convenient than digging through a drawer of old restaurant menus.
''With so many students living online today, the Internet is fast becoming an everyday tool much like the telephone,'' said Angela Gyetvan, Food.com`s vice president of marketing. ''Food.com is a natural fit for this trend and we want to make it simple for students to use the Internet to order meals from restaurants near them - just point, click and eat. Our goal is to integrate Food.com into campus life, so when they think about ordering out, they automatically get the job done online.''
Giving Back to Students and College Communities
To introduce college campuses to its service, Food.com has initiated a multi-faceted campaign, including a number of events, contests and promotions designed to reach students on campus and online - and provide them with rewarding opportunities.
Among the many activities planned include: * Food.com`s Internet affiliate marketing program, which is being offered to college campuses in an effort to give something back to the academic community. By becoming a Food.com Internet affiliate, students and school organizations will be paid based on clicks, registrations, and orders generated from ads on their sites. Web organizations can register to become an affiliate via the Food.com homepage. * The BIGWORDS.com Professor Outreach program, which Food.com will participate in as part of a sweepstakes awarding 500 pizza parties to students on campuses across the country. Information on Food.com will also be included on BIGWORDS.com bookmarks, which are distributed in classrooms, and featured prominently on the BIGWORDS site. * A series of food drives at universities across the country, to kick off in November. Sponsored by members of the music industry and Food.com, students will receive a CD and admission to a live concert in exchange for canned food. Information on this program can be found at www.food.com/music. * Food.com`s Starving Artist Sweepstakes, aimed at students with an artistic flair. Entries will be posted on the Food.com site, and students from around the globe will be able to cast their votes. The winner of the contest will be rewarded with a $1,000 scholarship and a chance for their art to be used in a national Food.com advertising campaign.
For details on all of Food.com’s campus activities, students should go directly to www.food.com/campus.
About Food.com Food.com was founded in December of 1996 and is the largest service of its kind offering home and business meals on the Internet. With nearly 13,000 restaurants on the service nationwide and over 650,000 members, Food.com is also the exclusive takeout and delivery partner of America Online. Food.com has been a leader in aggregating the highly fragmented restaurant industry in order to provide consumers with a one-stop shopping site on the Web for food takeout and delivery ordering. Eventually, Food.com intends to expand its offerings to include restaurant reservations, restaurant reviews, sending meals as gifts, specialty food offerings, and news related to food and dining. Food.com can be found on the World Wide Web at www.food.com. Located in San Francisco, California, Food.com can also be contacted at (415) 403-5200.
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