Wine-Searcher

Wine-Searcher is a web search engine enabling users to locate the price and availability of a given wine, whiskey, spirit or beer globally, and be directed to a business selling the alcoholic beverage. The site also includes an encyclopedia of wine regions, grape varieties and wine producers.

Wine-Searcher
TypeWeb Search Engine
IndustryInternet
Founded1998
FounderMartin Brown
HeadquartersAuckland, New Zealand
Key people
Julian Perry (CEO)
ProductsWine Information
Websitewww.wine-searcher.com

History

The company was founded in 1998 by Martin Brown, a former e-commerce manager for London wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd.[1] In 6 months, Martin Brown coded and launched the first version of the website.[2] In 2006, the operation was shifted from London to Auckland, in Brown's native New Zealand. It has been self-funding throughout its history.

In April 2018, Martin Brown stepped down as CEO of Wine Searcher, replaced by Julian Perry.[3][4] In 2019, Wine Searcher opened a UK office in London to strengthen its handle on the Euuropean and the US markets.[5]

Description

As of January 2020, Wine-Searcher had 10.9 million wine, beer and spirit listings from around 20,000 active stores and businesses, across 121 countries. The website and its associated apps attract 5.2 million active users each month; in 2019 51 million users made more than 226 million searches to compare prices. The company now has a staff of around 60 employees, including software developers, database administrators, customer relations managers, wine specialists and content writers.

Wine-Searcher collects online wine lists from a global range of wine retailers, producers and auction houses.

There are also both Wine-Searcher and WhiskeySearcher mobile apps for iOS and Android.[6] The apps also offer a label-recognition tool, whereby users can take a photo of a label to find out more about prices and availability, including nearby stores to current location.

On the website and apps users can save the details of products they have tried or purchased, or create a wish list. They can give products ratings (1 to 5 stars) and upload reviews.

Wine-Searcher's income derives from advertising solutions, paying access to professional content, and sale of remarketing data.[1]

Wine-Searcher also contains a comprehensive encyclopedia, which covers thousands of grape varieties, product categories, producer profiles and wine regions.[7] It also provides news pieces and magazine articles.

References
  1. Patrick Comiskey, Wine-searcher.com levels the wine industry playing field, Latimes.com, 12 August 2010
  2. Rod Vaughan, NZ website takes wine world by storm, Nbr.co.nz, 11 July 2018
  3. Edith Hancock, Martin Brown is stepping down as Wine-Searcher's CEO, Thedrinksbusiness.com, 26 April 2018
  4. Rob Brown, Wine-Searcher CEO quits claiming ‘I never wanted the job’, Harpers.co.uk, 26 April 2018
  5. Barnaby Eales, Wine-Searcher expands into London, Thedrinksbusiness.com, 7 November 2019
  6. "Wine-Searcher Mobile App". Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  7. "Wine Regions & Appellations". Retrieved 11 February 2014.
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