2 ms·

Now they just collect "protection money" from business to remove / prevent bad reviews I hope you have some kind of evidence for that, because it's a pretty se

Now they just collect "protection money" from business to remove / prevent bad reviews I hope you have some kind of evidence for that, because it's a pretty serious accusation to throw around.

acheron 12y ago
If you're talking specifically about Foursquare, I dunno, but pretty much any news story about Yelp in the past decade covers it, e.g. http://consumerist.com/2014/04/04/yelps-controversial-business-tactics-contribute-to-2000-complaints-received-by-ftc/ http://consumerist.com/2014/04/04/yelps-controversial-busine... "The number of complaints might not come as a surprise to those who have followed the numerous lawsuits and allegations of extorting money from businesses to remove negative reviews." "For years, businesses have claimed that negative reviews pop-up on their Yelp pages after they’ve declined to purchase advertising with the company."
slowmotiony 12y ago
Are you serious? Every yelp-like site, including the very local ones, works like this. It's not a big secret.
wodenokoto 12y ago
It is also a very common accusation. It's almost a monthly recurring story that some business decline an ad sales person from yelp only to see their review plummeting.
Ensorceled 12y ago
How is a off the cuff remark about a company's business mode on a internet discussion forum "a pretty serious accusation"? Besides actual journalists have made this connection and published it, just google "yelp extortion"
ch8230 12y ago
There's a documentary being made about Yelp's strong arming: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1299637435/billion-dollar-bully https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1299637435/billion-doll... I heard a business owner complained that yelp was showing mostly bad reviews after he refused to pay. So that's only anecdotal evidence but there seems to be more of it out there.

2 ms·

Now they just collect "protection money" from business to remove / prevent bad reviews I hope you have some kind of evidence for that, because it's a pretty se

by matthewmacleod 12y ago

Now they just collect "protection money" from business to remove / prevent bad reviews I hope you have some kind of evidence for that, because it's a pretty serious accusation to throw around.

acheron 12y ago
If you're talking specifically about Foursquare, I dunno, but pretty much any news story about Yelp in the past decade covers it, e.g. http://consumerist.com/2014/04/04/yelps-controversial-business-tactics-contribute-to-2000-complaints-received-by-ftc/ http://consumerist.com/2014/04/04/yelps-controversial-busine... "The number of complaints might not come as a surprise to those who have followed the numerous lawsuits and allegations of extorting money from businesses to remove negative reviews." "For years, businesses have claimed that negative reviews pop-up on their Yelp pages after they’ve declined to purchase advertising with the company."
slowmotiony 12y ago
Are you serious? Every yelp-like site, including the very local ones, works like this. It's not a big secret.
wodenokoto 12y ago
It is also a very common accusation. It's almost a monthly recurring story that some business decline an ad sales person from yelp only to see their review plummeting.
Ensorceled 12y ago
How is a off the cuff remark about a company's business mode on a internet discussion forum "a pretty serious accusation"? Besides actual journalists have made this connection and published it, just google "yelp extortion"
ch8230 12y ago
There's a documentary being made about Yelp's strong arming: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1299637435/billion-dollar-bully https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1299637435/billion-doll... I heard a business owner complained that yelp was showing mostly bad reviews after he refused to pay. So that's only anecdotal evidence but there seems to be more of it out there.