NEW YORK, Aug 21 — A lot of foodies have, at some time or other, dreamed of becoming a food critic, paid to test various dishes in restaurants and share their opinion. And while the métier of restaurant critic has changed somewhat with the advent of social media, a new app is aiming to become the “TikTok for restaurant reviews.” The Franki app allows users to discover local addresses and share their opinions in the form of videos. And for some users, this activity might even pay off monetarily.

Whether on TikTok or Instagram, content creators have become accustomed to earning money from their videos. While each monetisation system is subject to very specific conditions, such as the number of subscribers, a new, specialised platform is offering foodies new possibilities in the area. Franki, available on iOS and Android, enables users to capitalise on their content — by eating at restaurants registered on the platform, customers can recoup part of their food bill.

Consumers can link a card or bank account with the app and receive 5 per cent of the bill in cashback on certain offers. But this amount can be increased if they make videos of their experience, which earns them an additional 1 per cent on the bill. The money thus collected is then transferred to their digital wallet. In addition to promoting local businesses through a kind of scavenger hunt system, the most active users can be doubly rewarded by unlocking specific benefits. Those who use the app the most can enjoy 10 per cent cashback and a US$10 (RM43) payment when a person they sponsor makes their first purchase.

Users can also try to win prizes by completing challenges proposed by the platform. As TechCrunch explains, one of these “gigs” offered 50 users the chance to win US$5 if they made a ten-second video of themselves buying a frozen sweet treat.

“One of the best examples we’ve seen is a user who posted a video in an ice cream shop that drove a purchase of US$500, which is an insane amount of ice cream. And so the business got a US$500 purchase, and the creator got a US$10 kickback for doing so,” explained Nick Bennett, co-founder and CPO, adding that “on normal platforms, the business and the creators wouldn’t have known where the customer came from or be rewarded for helping the business.”

Already available in 30 US cities, including Austin, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Diego, the app already boasts 25,000 active monthly users and over 5,000 registered restaurants as of 2021.

To date, over US$500,000 has been returned to users. According to TechCrunch, the platform’s revenues have doubled quarter-on-quarter: “We’ve got a fairly ambitious target... We think we can be a half-a-billion-dollar revenue business in five years,” said Eugene Varricchio, CEO and co-founder of the app.

Social networks have long been looking at how to pay their users. By forging closer ties with professionals in the restaurant, music and retail sectors, platforms like TikTok have already established themselves in the daily lives of consumers, who may find it easier to earn money via Franki. — ETX Studio