How Brazil's top food delivery startup is meeting demand during Rio Olympics

In the heat of the Olympics, more people in Brazil are craving food delivery. 

iFood, the country's dominant food delivery startup, has experienced a 13 percent increase in the number of orders over the first two weeks of the Olympics. Orders spiked by 30 percent in Brazil during the four-hour broadcast of the Opening Ceremonies August 5. 

But the demand didn't come as a surprise for the startup. "We prepared for the potential increase in the number of orders," iFood CEO Felipe Fioravante told Mashable. "Brazilians like to watch the broadcasts at home, with friends, and good food, of course."

Founded in 2011, iFood has grown to be the largest food delivery service in Brazil. Earlier this year, it acquired competitor service Hellofood Brazil and secured $30 million in new venture capital funding. It fills more than 2 million orders per month, on average. 

An influx of visitors in Brazil has translated to new clientele. "Because our app has several pictures of menus and is easy to navigate, we realized foreign tourists also resorted to it," Fioravante said.  

IMAGE: IFOOD

The app has grown the total number of users by 5 percent since the Olympics began, up to 2 million monthly active users. An estimated 10,500 athletes and 500,000 tourists were expected to travel to Rio during the Olympics.

Fioravante had one big tech company to thank for his company's ability to meet the demand. He credited the app's integrations with Facebook as crucial to improving the delivery process. 

The mobile app offers Facebook log-in and the account kit system, Facebook's developer tool for app log-in via a phone number or email address, no password required. (iFood was launch partner for the tool at Facebook's developer conference this year). 

Those options are used by 80 percent of iFood's customers, the company said. 

IMAGE: IFOOD

For Brazil and iFood, in particular, the account kit system has helped improve deliveries since it provides the service with the most updated number to call for questions. 

"In Brazil, people usually have more than one number," said Dario Dal Piaz, Facebook's head of product partnerships for Brazil. "We had no idea that the account kit would be used to update phone numbers for delivery services. Sometimes we discover the gold when we least expect it."

Kim Kardashian joins the ranks of celebs who cup

Always one to keep up with trends, Kim Kardashian is giving the Olympics' latest one a whirl.

The reality star posted some Snapchats about trying cupping, a technique that suctions glass cups on the skin in order to relax the muscles and boost blood flow. 

According to her Snaps, Kim has been experiencing some neck pain, so, she's trying everything: a selection of seven new memory foam pillows, acupuncture on her hands and feet and cupping.

"And we wanna do cupping, you say?" Kim can be heard asking her acupuncturist, Jane.

"We'll do cupping afterwards," Jane said with a smile. 

Kardashian let out a small "Ahh!" after getting the cupping confirmation.

She then Snapped proof of her acupuncture needles.

Next, she shared a Snap of eight cups primed for cupping her skin with the phrase "Trying cupping!" written on it.

Kardashian did not post any proof that she went through with the cupping, but either way, we hope her neck feels better soon.

We all look forward to the next episode of Kupping up with the Kardashians.

Latest Olympics media rules nix GIFs, Vines, and streaming apps

The Olympics Committee has always been restrictive in who can use what footage and when, but a couple new rules introduced for the 2016 games take things even further. The official social media guidelines now prohibit streaming apps, Vines, and even the lowly GIF.

Part of the new restriction appears in the official broadcast rules (PDF), under “Internet and Mobile Platforms.”

…the use of Olympic Material transformed into graphic animated formats such as animated GIFs (i.e. GIFV), GFY, WebM, or short video formats such as Vines and others, is expressly prohibited.

“Olympic Material” is defined as pretty much any images of the games, whatever the source.

Then, in the FAQ for the social and digital media guidelines (PDF):

Broadcasting images via live-streaming applications (e.g. Periscope, Meerkat) is prohibited inside Olympic venues.

The versions of these documents updated for the 2014 games in Sochi don’t have any comparable language, or at least nothing this specific. A possible exception is the“Photographer’s Undertaking,” which states:

The dissemination of moving images or sound  captured  in  an  Olympic venue, through any media, including display on the Internet, Mobile Platform and other interactive media or electronic medium, is strictly prohibited.

But that document isn’t dated, so it’s hard to say when the IOC might have made that language more inclusive.

In general the rule boils down to: Video taken in the Village or at a venue is to be taken by accredited media and used within the broadcast rules, or else kept for personal purposes only. That outlawed streaming in effect, but the new rules make it more clear. GIFs weren’t mentioned, let alone GIFVs, GFYs, or any other new custom looping image format.

Of course, any attempt to crack down on the inevitable meme-making that accompanies such a major media event is doomed to hilarious failure.

Hell, even the pros are likely to get tut-tutted by the IOC for not following every rule to the letter. Just try making sure your broadcast, front page, segment, vlog, or whatever meets all the restrictions set out here.