Untappd arrived at the party hot on the heels of IPAs becoming a thing people traveled and waited in hours-long lines for, a ready and willing platform for drinkers to discover, share, swap info, and, by checking in that they were at those hype breweries drinking those hype beers, brag. At the time, there were only BeerAdvocate and RateBeer, both representing an older generation in beer. “But people checking in at bars, saying what they’re drinking, that starts connecting people across the globe.”Īvola wanted to take the inherent social aspect of craft beer and grow it online. “No one cares if you’re checking in at a grocery store,” he says. Avola and Mather used Foursquare as a model - which the press ran with - but, as Avola puts it, with more focus on what those check-ins could do. “My main interest was in communities and building social platforms to connect people in different ways,” he tells me in a recent call.
Perhaps surprisingly, he wasn’t all that into beer when he started working on the app. Foursquare for BeerĪvola created Untappd with Tim Mather in 2010. Beer’s relationship with Untappd might be complicated, but Untappd’s role has proven undeniably significant. Some, however, feel that Untappd has fueled “ticker culture,” and that its rating system is a breeding ground for biased, baseless ratings that only favor hype beers and often hurt breweries. It’s helped users find beers they otherwise wouldn’t, and, therefore, has helped breweries reach new customers.
In the 11 years since it launched, Untappd has facilitated a wider-reaching community in beer. As when software developer Next Glass purchased Untappd in 2016, and then joined it with newer purchase Beer Advocate in 2020, this update is stirring up conversation and reflection on Untappd’s impact on beer culture. This, Avola writes, is driven by a lifestyle change, and he will remain at Untappd’s parent company, Next Glass, as executive advisor. 20, Gregory Avola announced he was stepping down as chief creative officer of Untappd, the online beer platform he helped found and then actively ran for a decade.
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