Yelp Makes it Easier to Support Struggling Asian-Owned Businesses During Pandemic, Rising Attacks

The company is partnering with Gold House, a nonprofit collective that promotes unity, representation and success among the Asian and Pacific Islander community, to let restaurants identify themselves as Asian-owned on their Yelp listings.

“With this new business attribute, we aim to elevate Asian-owned businesses who strengthen communities across the country and make it easier than ever for consumers to support them,” Yelp said in an announcement on Tuesday.

Yelp also said it will remove “any hateful, racist or harmful content that violates our content guidelines” and monitor the pages of Asian-owned businesses for any offensive posts targeting the Asian community.

“Asian American and Pacific Islander crimes haven’t stopped — alarmingly, they’ve come even closer to home, present in our communities from Chinatowns to Filipinotowns,” Program Directors Mikkoh Chen and Megan Ruan said in a joint statement. “We hope Yelp’s new business attribute for AAPI business owners helps drive safe foot traffic into each enclave, benefits local communities economically, and provides community-driven oversight and action into the safety of our neighbors and elders for years to come.”

The company will double match all of its employees’ donations from this April and May and those from last month, according to Travel and Leisure.

The money will go to several AAPI organizations, such as Stop AAPI Hate, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA), Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) and Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).

In its latest Economic Impact Report released on Tuesday, Yelp shared that the rate of consumers searching for Asian-owned restaurants went up by 130% from February 2020 to February 2021.

Feature Image via Yelp