Yelp and Gold House Partner to Make It Easier to Support Asian-owned Businesses

With the escalation of anti-Asian hate crimes and violence we’ve seen across the nation during the pandemic, there’s never been a more important time to support the Asian American community. According to our latest Economic Impact Report on diverse businesses (released today), it’s clear that consumers are increasingly looking to support Asian business owners as the rate of searches on Yelp for Asian-owned businesses in the U.S. increased by 3,404%* in February 2021 compared to the same period the year prior. To make it even easier to find and support Asian-owned businesses, Yelp is teaming up with Gold House, a nonprofit organization that forges the inclusive unity, representation, and success of Asians and Pacific Islanders, to introduce a new way for businesses to self-identify as Asian-owned if they choose to do so with a free business attribute. The new searchable attribute is opt-in only, as the decision to self-identify should rest solely with the business.

To add the Asian-owned business attribute to their Yelp Page, business owners can log into their Yelp for Business account and follow the instructions below. To protect businesses who choose to self-identify as Asian-owned, Yelp is proactively monitoring business pages for hate speech against the Asian community to mitigate and remove any hateful, racist or harmful content that violates our content guidelines.

1. Log in to Yelp for Business (Business Information tab)
2. In the Amenities section, click Add or Edit 
3. Select Yes next to “Asian-owned”
4. Click Save Changes

We’re immensely proud to partner with Gold House to support Asian business owners — here’s what Program Directors Mikkoh Chen and Megan Ruan had to say about this initiative:

“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. 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.”

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. For more information on how Yelp is further supporting the Asian American and Pacific Islander community inside and outside Yelp, learn more here.

*This data point has been updated after uncovering a typo in the script that produced the YoY increase in searches for Asian-owned businesses for an incorrect month (Feb. 2020). The script has been corrected to produce the YoY increase in searches for Asian-owned businesses for Feb. 2021.