Everything happening in Bhutan, in one place — a discovery portal where people find deals, events, and new places, and local businesses get a simple, fair way to be found.
Nook connects two sides of the same problem. People want to know what is on near them — offers, festivals, workshops, and newly opened places — and small local businesses have no easy way to get noticed. Nook puts both on one portal covering Thimphu, Paro, Punakha, and beyond.
Visitors can search by what, where, and when, filtering by today, this weekend, or this week, then save promotions, follow places, and share deals with friends. Businesses get a free page with hours, contact details, photos, a map link, and everything they offer, and can publish deals and events in minutes.
Promotion is fair by design: browsing and listing are free, paid placements use a coin wallet with prices shown up front, and paid places appear in random order. Businesses can submit ID and a trade licence for verification, and users can report misleading or unsafe ads.
Built with Next.js, with Prisma on a Neon Postgres database for listings, accounts, and wallet records, and AWS storage for business photos and verification documents.
Key Features
Deals, events & new places
Offers from local shops and cafés, festivals and workshops soonest first, and businesses that have just opened.
Search by what, where & when
Search across deals, places, and events with time filters for any time, today, this weekend, and this week.
Accounts, favourites & sharing
Users save promotions, follow places, and share deals and events with friends.
Free business pages
Hours, contact details, photos, a map link, and a list of offerings, with deals and events published in minutes.
WhatsApp, phone & web contact
Customers reach a business straight from a promotion through WhatsApp, a call, or its website.
Business dashboard
Totals for views, clicks, shares, WhatsApp chats, and followers, without revealing who the visitors are.
Coin wallet & featured placements
Businesses pay in coins to feature a promotion or run a home page banner, with prices shown before any payment.
Verification & reporting
Verified badges for businesses that submit ID and a trade licence, and a way for users to report misleading or unsafe ads.
Technical Implementation
Keeping a two-sided marketplace trustworthy and fair — letting businesses promote themselves without crowding out others, verifying who they are, and giving them useful numbers while never exposing who their visitors are.
"A local portal only works if people trust what they see, and small businesses trust that they will be shown fairly. Both come down to clear rules, not more features."
Outcome
Nook is live at nook.jigmelodey.dev, with deals, events, and new places on the home page and a launch banner announcing it to the public.