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High-Tech Dining
The Daily Gleaner, March 11, 1999
Believe it or not, Wayne Jagoe's new business is visited approximately 7,000 times a day.
Fortunately, parking isn't a problem as Jagoe's latest venture is
Dineaid.com, an online dining guide for the Atlantic Canada region.
"We have every (restaurant), A to Z, from fast food to fine dining," Jagoe said.
Visitors to the website cannot only learn of their dining options throughout the Atlantic provinces but they can also find out what others think of those restaurants.
DineAid.com accepts eatery critiques from anybody. an overall rating is derived from those submissions.
"We throw out the highs and lows and use the middle ratings." Jagoe explained. He noted it is the best way to make sure the results aren't skewed by biased opinions of those in the food service industry.
"We haven't seen anybody abuse it yet."
Jagoe got the idea for DineAid.com when he first started surfing the World wide Web in late 1997. Fascinated with the new medium, his interest in cooking and recipes led him to a Vancouver dining guide. He soon discovered there were almost 40 such dining guides for the Vancouver area alone, and none for Atlantic Canada.
Following the lead of any successful website, Jagoe has made his site not only a service, but a resource as well. In addition to restaurant listings and critiques, readers can find culinary tips and recipes. In fact, they can contribute tips, recipes and dining reviews, giving the site a third purpose: as a forum.
Jagoe said the frequency of hits at DineAid.com has been increasing at a rate of 27 percent per month since it was launched almost of year ago. Using a conservative estimate of a sustained 10 percent growth for the remainder of 1999, Jagoe predicts the site will get 2.5 million hits this year.
The business side of the website is generated through advertising revenue. Though the fledgling Internet company still hasn't recorded a profit, its list of ad clients is impressive.
Jagoe said Coca-Cola, Jost Wines, Labatt, McCain foods, Keystone Kelly's Restaurants and the New Brunswick government are all on board, as are smaller local businesses, such as BrewBakers, Frank's Finer Diner and Picaroons.
He said some of his advertising clients have found it is cheaper to maintain an Internet presence through DineAid.com than it would be to establish their own site.
"We're a long way away from that," the Fredericton resident said, noting he expects the first profits to start coming in within the the six months to a year. "We're in it for the long haul."
Every second 17 new websites turn up on the Internet, so it takes time for one to demonstrate it is not a fly-by-night operation. a website has to develop a following and reputation.
While Jagoe handles the sales and marketing end of the business, he has contracted webmaster Sean Phinney to handle the maintenance, design and general updating of the site.
The web address is www.dineaid.com..
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