More Business Owners Step Forward with Accusations Against Yelp
By AAN Staff
march 19, 2009 10:03 am
Following up on
its story last month in which business owners said that sales reps from the popular user-generated review site promised to move or remove negative reviews in return for advertising, the
East Bay Express talks to six more business owners who allege similar practices. Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman
complained about the original article's use of anonymous sources (even though "Yelp is a review site based entirely on anonymous sources," as reporter Kathleen Richards notes) so this time the
Express relied only on sources who were willing to go on the record. "Several said that the reps would offer to move negative reviews if they advertised; and in some cases positive reviews disappeared when they refused, or negative ones appeared," the
Express reports. "In one case, a nightclub owner said Yelp offered positive reviews of his business in exchange for free drinks."