Yelp’s “Black-owned” tag, introduced in 2020 to boost the visibility of Black-owned businesses, led to lower average ratings of Black-owned restaurants in Detroit, a recent study by The Conversation has found. Restaurants tagged as Black-owned received 3.03 stars on average from reviewers aware of the ownership, compared to 3.78 stars from those who were unsure. Increased visibility, but lower ratings The visibility of Black-owned restaurants on Yelp significantly increased following Yelp’s June 2020 edition of the Black-owned tag. A year after the tag was introduced, reviews in Detroit mentioned Black
Minority-owned local businesses performed better and boosted business among white consumers when they revealed their race on digital platforms such as Yelp, a new study has found. The study was co-authored by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Luca, Abhay Aneja at the University of California-Berkeley, and Oren Resehf of Washington University in St. Louis. Yelp’s Black-owned business label They analyzed Yelp’s new “Black-owned business” label feature online. The label aims to support Black entrepreneurs by increasing the visibility of Black-owned businesses among consumers who rely on Yelp for information. The
