English-language version of ‘social petwork’ launches first in SA

YummyPets, a self-styled “social petwork” which originates in France has chosen South Africa for the launch of its English-language offering.

There are some pretty niche and offbeat social networks out there. But going by the number of cats, puppies, and other creatures filling up our Instagram feeds, it’s surprising that there haven’t been more high-profile pet-based ones.

Yummypets allows you to set up a Facebook-style profile for your animals and upload photos, videos and news about them. From there, people can follow them and receive updates on what they’ve been up to.

If that was all it did though, there wouldn’t be much to separate it from the Facebook and Instagram accounts that people set up for their pets. It makes sense therefore that Yummypets seems to have a fairly extensive set of content services.

As well as pet-centric news articles, the network claims to offer free expert health advice “specific to your particular pet”. There’s also a listing service including ads, adoption, lost pets, forums, and local directories and photo competitions and pet quizzes that can result in prizes from the site’s partners.

The service has around 500 000 users in France and is in the early stages of its global expansion. The social network is accessible via the web as well via Android and iOS apps.

That kind of diversity in its services will likely prove crucial, especially until it builds up truly significant membership numbers.