DEMO: Yumit unites foodies with loads of mouthwatering photos

Yumit is one of 65 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2010 event taking place this week. These companies do pay a fee to present, but our coverage of them remains objective.
Madrid-based gastronomy network Yumit is betting that foodies alone will power its photo-sharing site.
Yumit users snap photos of entrees they’ve tried through an iPhone app and can tag them according to cuisine and restaurant. It has an followee-follower model akin to Tumblr or Twitter, where you can follow other foodies’ escapades and see their mouth-watering stream of photos as they try dishes at different restaurants.
You can look up dishes by name, restaurant and user and vote them up by ‘liking’ or commenting on them. For example, here’s a search on ‘Fabada’ or a bean stew.
Yumit seems quite similar to a California startup Foodspotting, which lets people take photos of restaurants dishes, tag them and share with friends. Since the concept is quite new, there’s probably room for more than one company for now. Plus, Yumit can capitalize on being based in Europe: one plus of the site (at least for me) is that its dishes are a tad more exotic than what Foodspotting offers.
Both sites have a lot of potential in terms of building a business model. If either collects enough of a loyal foodie following, they can charge restaurants for premium features or sponsored listings or they can take a cut of whatever business they’re able to drive to restaurants. This is where a strong mobile strategy will come in handy — imagine being within walking distance of a restaurant around dinner time and being pushed a coupon paired with a tempting user-generated photo. It’s the perfect, low-cost ad to a willing recipient.
Yumit is seed funded by its founders.