It’s Berlin. 2.30am. You’re visiting from wherever for two days, and you’re full of food and drink but you’re up for more. Ideally something new, something a bit different. Who are you going to call? No one at home will pick up their phone at this time to guide you to their favorite weird and wonderful late-night hang-outs. Five years ago, before the iPhone era, that would’ve been it. Back to the hotel or a late night touristy pizza spot with &eur;1 Bitburgers. But now Berlin’s city is literally at your fingertips. Hell, you might even end up at JFK’s old local with milk-fried chicken and cinnamon liqueur shots, some post-dinner exercise at Dr. Pong, or Madame Claude, a brothel turned bar with upside-down furniture. Taking the printed and so quickly out-of-date Lonely Planet and Wallpaper books to a next level, unlike.net reinvented the city guide for the new century. With brutally honest reviews, hipster event listings and super clean design, it established itself as the leading international city guide with concise city-by-city newsletters, an intuitive mobile application and a VIP concierge service. Cities covered include Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Ibiza, London, Miami, Milan, Paris, Sao Paolo, Shanghai and Vienna, with New York, LA, Tokyo and Mumbai following soon. Currently hitting 945,000 impressions and 490,000 unique visitors a month, it’s the ultimate sub-radar destination for opinion makers and taste-traders.

Taking the printed and so quickly out-of-date Lonely Planet and Wallpaper books to a next level, unlike.net reinvented the city

The brain behind it all is Cape Town/Berlin/London-based entrepreneur Marley Fabisiewicz. Having started his career as a music mag editor and DJ, he rolled in to being the editor-in- chief at Lodown magazine along with his partner Marok. Seven years of good times later, he moved into becoming the European Marketing Director for Vans. “But I figured being a marketing and PR guy wasn’t really my thing. Too much shoulder-tapping, you know?” Soon after that, Marley entered the world of IT to build software, interactive flash sites and all sorts of cool tech. Then, on his travels, the idea for unlike.net developed.

“I was in Miami and wanted to visit some cool stores and galleries so I picked up a copy of those little Wallpaper City Guides. I grabbed the Berlin one and when I was sitting in my hotel room reading it, I thought, ‘Wow! Berlin is a really cool
city!’ So I instantly went online to wallpaper.com because I figured they would have all that information there. But there was nothing… So with that in mind, I met up with my developers and said: ‘Listen guys, how about we do something cool and make a city guide about Berlin?’ It was 2007: Berlin’s unlike.net launched. And when the iPhone came out almost simultaneously, the whole thing just came together.” Things happened fast when Apple chose Berlin’s unlike.net as the app of the month. Website traffic went nuts. unlike.net got financing sorted, an editorial team together, and more cities opened up. “Everything went so fast. It was all very exciting.” Fast-forward to Winter 2010 and the unlike.net brand is strong and still really well respected for its high quality content, offering a unique travel experience. After slowing down a little, unlike.net is now about to be completely restructured with a new team and strategy. “We’re working on an idea
to make everything more dynamic and interactive.

One of the biggest overheads is generating editorial content, whilst most content is actually out there… Your Facebook Places updates, your Foursquare check-ins, your friends’ favorite hotels Tweeted. So what we’re working on right now is a sort of AI which enables us to create a personalized city guide, just for you.” Does that mean unlike.net is going down the slightly dangerous path of user generated content? “The discussion goes back and forth. We haven’t done it so far, but it’s definitely heading that way. So far it’s been good, we’ve sold about 50,000 iPhone apps but it’s time to take it to the next level. But it won’t ever be like a Yelp, where Jimmy and Johnny post some bullshit. We need a mechanism that somehow controls that.” When Marley isn’t working on artificial intelligence strategies, he’s opening bars, galleries, and Factory-like buildings. Two weeks ago he opened up a bar in Cape Town called Fat Back Soul. Then, three weeks ago, the unlike.net gallery opened its doors - with a solo show by London artist Steff Plaetz. The gallery is part of a four storey building in Mitte, Berlin. He calls it his Factory: a recording studio in the basement, ground floor gallery, and the top two floors are workspace. What’s next? “A Polish restaurant in Berlin. Polish is my heritage. There’s this great place in London called Gessler, it really inspires me.” Marley’s on the hunt for a venue now…

http://www.unlike.net/