Yelp is supporting Asian-owned businesses with new tool

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Yelp is making it easier for people to show their support for Asian-owned businesses.

The crowd-sourced review company is launching a tool that will give restaurants and other businesses the ability to identify themselves as Asian-owned if they wish, Yelp’s chief diversity officer Miriam Warren announced Tuesday in a blog post.

Yelp is making it easier for people to show their support for Asian-owned businesses with a new feature. (Yelp)

Owners can select the "Asian owned" attribute via their Yelp for Business account to update their listing page if they choose. Users will then be able to easily find the businesses when filtering searches for Asian-owned enterprises. The tool is a similar feature displayed on businesses that self-identify as women or Black-owned.

"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," Warren said in the Yelp blog post.

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More consumers are increasingly looking to support the Asian community amid violence and hate crimes occurring in cities across the country. Searches on Yelp for Asian-owned businesses in the U.S. surged by 130% in February 2021 compared to the same time period in 2020, Yelp data shows.

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Yelp says it’s monitoring business pages for hate speech against the Asian community and will remove hateful, racist or harmful content that violates its company guidelines.

The "Asian owned" attribute will be available to businesses who choose to update their pages on Tuesday.