With No Frills or Celebrities, Cookpad Is a Global Go-To for Recipes

Born in Japan and a hit around the world, the recipe-sharing site has been less successful in America. Yet it has a small, fervent following among immigrants.

There are unspoken expectations the digital realm tends to place on recipes: They should photograph beautifully. They should have the mass appeal to go viral. And they should be written by a charismatic cook with a huge Instagram following and an adorable dog. Cookpad, a recipe-sharing website and app, flouts all that. Its recipes prioritize practicality, and are mostly created by amateur home cooks. The photos are unpolished. The layout is simple. Yet Cookpad has been a global success — from Japan, where it was founded nearly a quarter-century ago, to India, Algeria and Spain. It is one of the largest cooking platforms in the world, reporting around 100 million visitors each month, from 76 countries. (By comparison, Allrecipes, another popular recipe platform, says it has 125 million average monthly visitors to its site from more than 200 countries.)