Wonder

Research Outline

Prepared for Dmitry A. | Delivered August 12, 2020

Market Overview: Online Recipe Subscription Service

Goals

Determine the size of the market for subscription services that provide food-related content (such as NYT Cooking and Sidechef), including identifying any growth factors, to showcase the potential of Mealz.com as it introduces a monthly subscription model. Include examples of successful companies that have launched a similar model either via mobile or web interfaces.

Early Findings

Market Size for Online Food EducationAfter launching in late 2014, NYT Cooking amassed a total of 120,000 paid subscribers through November 2018. 
By November 2019, NYT Cooking had 250,000 subscribers.
Bon Appétit magazine runs a popular YouTube channel with more than 6 million subscribers to its free content. It is currently looking for ways to put up a paywall to monetize its content.
BuzzFeed's Tasty recipe service has more than 100 million fans on Facebook.
Case Study: NYT Cooking NYT Cooking is a popular multi-platform food-related content subscription service available for $1.25 a week or $40 a year.
NYT Cooking provides its subscribers access to more than 19,000 recipes on any device (including web and mobile). It started with 17,000 recipes in late 2014. 
Editors provide their own curated recipes to subscribers, creating a personalized approach for and the sense of sharing a recipe with both the chef and the community. 
Guides for all cooking levels are available on NYT Cooking's site, adding value for visitors. 
Best Practice: Cross-PromotionA total of 3 million subscribers signed up for the free cooking newsletter the Times also offers through November 2018. The newsletter helps promote NYT Cooking.
Bon Appétit did a multi-platform launch of its channel on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Android TV in February 2019 and its app subsequently launched at the top of Apple's Apps We Love list. In November 2019, its YouTube channel had 4.7 million subscribers; that amount increased to more than 6 million today (in other words, 1.3 million subscribers were added in 9 months).

Summary of Early Findings in Relation to GoalsThe first hour of research involved outlining the project to determine if the requested content is available. The research team was able to gather statistics related to the popularity of food-related content, and can continue to do so if desired. 

The research team focused on profiling NYT Cooking as it seems they are leader in providing content through a paid subscription model. Other successful models have been identified and can be similarly profiled if desired. 

Lastly, during research, various best practices for promoting and retaining subscribers to food-related content services were identified (one of which was provided above). This research can also be continued if desired.

Based on our early findings, we recommend the following next steps to help provide a thorough overview of the food-related content subscription model: