Start-up Uptaste introduces the Reviewfie – reviews by selfie

Uptaste was founded by Alex Bainbridge, who left TourCMS, the tours and activities distribution platform he founded, five months ago having sold the business Continue reading →

A London start-up tours and activities app specialising in food has unveiled a new way for consumers to submit reviews by exploiting the selfie phenomenon.

Uptaste was founded by Alex Bainbridge, who left TourCMS, the tours and activities distribution platform he founded, five months ago having sold the business.

It has introduced the concept of the ‘Reviewfie’ that uses artificial intelligence to do sentiment analysis on selfies to determine the user’s assessment based on their facial expression.

Uptaste chief executive Bainbridge said the Reviewfie addresses many of the issues with conventional typed reviews like fraud, the hassle of writing and uploading them, the tendency for polarised views and gaming by competitors.

He said: “The big advantage of Reviewfies is that they reduce fraud by design. Apps using Reviewfies have both a photo and a location so reviews are attributable and tracked to specific locations, so faking them is both awkward and time-consuming.

“But that’s not all, Reviewfies will rebalance online feedback by removing ‘review friction’. Online reviews currently take so long to write that only those with very strong opinions – either for or against – usually bother.

“Reviewfies are simple to make and submit, removing review friction and encouraging everyone to take part, not just the polarised extremes.

“This also means all reviews are spontaneous, made in the moment, and not (as some review systems allow) weeks or even months later.”

Uptaste is currently only available in London. It aims to guide users to easy-to-miss places to eat like shops, street traders and local markets. It combines both location data and expert local insight to curate the options offered to users.