Recipe Sharing Site DapurMasak Launches With More Than 38,000 Members

Following the closure of Sedapur earlier this month, Soegianto Widjaja this week officially launches DapurMasak, the recipe site that he has been working on since the middle of last year. Based on the Japanese company CookPad, DapurMasak allows cooking enthusiasts to share and collect recipes online.

Even though it was just launched this week, DapurMasak isn't exactly new. Widjaja actually had been working on DapurMasak since the middle of 2012 before participating and winning the SparxUp startup awards that year.

"DapurMasak has a vision to spread the joy of cooking to the young generation so we can enrich the variety of food in Indonesia", explains Widjaja.

He said in the announcement that in six months up to August this year, the site recorded an increase of 300% in the number of recipes posted and recooked, with a visitor growth of 480%.

"Right now we have 38,000 members but the number doesn't really mean anything", Widjaja said in an interview with DailySocial at the end of July. "In January we had 700-900 recipes submitted. Now I have 4100, maybe more because that was in mid July. From the very beginning, 50% of the recipes posted have been recooked, and more than 2/3 of the recooked and reposted recipes had been modified".

He said that with this rate of recooks and reposted recipes, it means that people are eager and willing to try out recipes that they find on the site. This sort of engagement is what he aims to have through DapurMasak. Of course, the number of members is important but he's more interested in the number of recooks and shared recipes because it means that the members are actively participating.

To encourage interaction and activities, DapurMasak offers points and badges that are earned based on certain activities or challenges, which can be redeemed for a number of different rewards such as shopping vouchers.

Many of DapurMasak's members had come across the site through Google searches and through the online and offline events that the company held or participated in since the beginning of the year. Every so often DapurMasak holds an online cooking event encouraging its members to cook particular types of food or certain recipes, or use certain ingredients. This

Currently DapurMasak is running an Independence Day event by asking its members to share their local recipes to celebrate the diversity and the range of Indonesian cooking recipes. The event will run until 17 September 2013 and is expected to net more than 200 new recipes to the site.

DapurMasak recipes are available both through the desktop as well as mobile browser and its members are also able to submit their recipes and recook other people's recipes through their smartphone browser.

"We want to make cooking even more fun. We believe that through the spirit of sharing, DapurMasak can spread the joy of cooking and turn Indonesia into a healthier, richer, and happier country", Widjaja said in his closing statement.

[Header image from Shutterstock]