Burpple connects with Instagram, introduces Flash Cards and localizes for Japan

If there is one new startup that you need to know about in Singapore, it definitely is the hot pink social food journal Burpple. The Burpple team was recently featured on TodayOnline where the news of what the team has been up to was first reported. Finally, its official. 

Instagram Connect

Here it is, the new update features Instagram Connect. In the press release, the Burpple team uses the classical Google style when they share with us about Instagram Connect, which reads: “Introducing Instagram Connect, a new way to post photos on Burpple.” With the new Instagram Connect, you can now take pictures of food on Instagram, apply beautiful filters and hashtag #burpple (or food related hashtags). These beautiful food photos will automatically sync to your Burpple food journal complete with location and meal type information. They will appear in a “Instagram” Box on your Burpple account, which you can then edit and curate them. For all foodie Instagrammers, all your photos with food related #hashtags will also be synced retrospectively – making them searchable and useful. As Elisha Ong, cofounder of Burpple puts it, “It’s simple, beautiful and effortless.”

Burpple Flash Card and profile edits

The second improvement to Burpple is the all new Burpple Flash Card, a sleek and informative display of your personal Burpple profile. With the Flash Card, you can now express more about yourself on Burpple by telling the world where you are from. You can also share your blog or personal website and write a short bio on your culinary background and adventures. You can edit them directly from the Burpple Flash Card or from the brand new user settings screen.

Japanese localization

Another huge improvement to Burpple is that there is now a localized Japanese version. Just a few months before this, Burpple was made available to the Chinese market when the team shipped out a localized Chinese version. Now, users from Japan can enjoy a fully localized Japanese edition and share the photos of their food with each other. Japanese localization makes sense as social food sharing is huge in Japan. Its Japan counterpart SnapDish, which is also a social food sharing app, focuses on home cooked dishes and recipe social network service. SnapDish has more than 260,000 downloads back in June and was enjoying 60,000 monthly downloads. With the huge response from the Japanese community, Burpple looks to enter and capture part of this market.

Various other improvements

Some other improvements to the existing Burpple app includes a whole new search function. Users can now search and choose a specific place from anywhere around the world. Users who liked your food moments will also have their name displayed so that it is easier to see and connect with one another. Personally, I think this is a huge improvement which I also wrote about few months back. The user profile interaction opens up a whole new layer of user interactivity and promotes a more engaging Burpple community.

What’s moving forward for the team?

Burpple was officially launched in May this year, and has had some amazing traction and hit several key milestones. One thing which the team has been really tight lipped about is the official numbers in terms of user tractions as well as their funding sources. The popular app has also been featured by several prominent publications such as Forbes as well as TheNextWeb.

So what’s moving forward for the team? While the team has not revealed their long term game plan to us, we know one thing for sure, there is definitely nothing that can stop or slow Burpple down. The Instagram Connect will definitely play a big part in driving traffic to Burpple.

Another thing for sure, Burpple definitely needs to start working on their Android app, as their app is still no where to be found on the Google Play. Cofounder Elisha shared with CNET in a recent article that “Android and other platforms are definitely in the pipeline, but we’d like to focus and nail it on iOS first.” Will we expect the announcement from Burpple with regards to the Android app soon? Your guess is as good as mine.

With Burpple also officially launching into the Japanese market, will SnapDish release any updates to their app soon? We will just have to wait and see.