How do you support Asian-owned businesses? For Yelp, it’s as simple as a new tag.

The specialised platform has set up a new option to better identify businesses run by Asian Americans. A useful way to support the businesses of this community hard hit by hate crimes and racism in the United States.

In the United States, attacks against the Asian community have reached terrible proportions. After the Atlanta shooting and numerous racist attacks, people have spoken out to defend this population. Initiatives have been cropping up on social networks and continue to emerge.

As with popular application Yelp, which shares users’ reviews of businesses, restaurants and other stores. The platform has decided to launch a new tag to better identify and list all Asian-owned businesses.

“Supporting Asian-owned businesses is more important than ever amid an alarming increase in violence targeting the Asian community and a long history of anti-Asian racism in the US,” Yelp wrote on its official blog.

An increase of 130% in February

Businesses will be able to edit their profile by logging into their Yelp for Business account to activate the “Asian-owned businesses” badge. This is a good way for the site to support this population: by making it easier for users to find these businesses.

Users will be able to add the “Asian-owned” filter to their search to discover only businesses that have activated this badge around them.

The initiative was prompted by two factors. In addition to wanting to show solidarity with the community, Yelp announced that in February 2021, searches for Asian-owned businesses increased by 130% compared to the same period last year. A high demand that Yelp wanted to respond to in order to meet the demand of its users.

To do so, the platform partnered with the nonprofit Gold House, which fights for more inclusiveness, representation and success for the Asian community. “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,” added Yelp.

On its website, the platform noted that Mandarin-speaking advisors were available to help companies that expressed the need.

 - AFP Relaxnews