Recommender.com

Recommender.com was a business-to-consumer venture established in 1999, positioning itself in the Information Services sector during the dot-com boom. The company was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and operated a digital platform focused on user-generated reviews. Its core business was an application that allowed consumers to both publish and consult experiences with a wide array of products and services, including electronics, cars, books, movies, hotels, and cosmetics.

The platform's business model was centered on community engagement, enabling visitors to find and write product reviews. A notable aspect of its strategy was a feature that allowed users to earn money through their contributions, creating an incentive for content generation. The company's revenue streams and specific monetization strategies beyond this are not publicly detailed. For its clients, which were the general public, the primary benefit was access to a centralized database of peer-to-peer opinions to inform purchasing decisions.

From a funding perspective, Recommender.com secured capital from the venture capital market to fuel its initial growth. The company completed an early-stage VC funding round on January 25, 2000. Despite its early start in the online review space, the company ultimately ceased operations. It has been designated as out of business since August 15, 2019, marking the end of its two-decade history.

Keywords: consumer reviews, product reviews, service reviews, online review platform, user-generated content, dot-com company, information services B2C, Chicago startup, VC-backed, consumer review website, electronics reviews, car reviews, hotel reviews, book reviews, movie reviews, peer-to-peer reviews, online community, consumer feedback, brand experience, product feedback