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Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut

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Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut

#331

Post by lancesells »

mabbo wrote: post #142

It feels as though much of tech has gone from helping people accomplish their goals efficiently to a business model of extracting rents while providing no or little value. In this example, what benefit is GrubHub providing to anyone? The person used Yelp solely to look up the phone number of a restaurant. GrubHub deserves 15% of his order for that? Why, because they made a deal to give X% of it to Yelp, and convinced…

I really wish there was a GrubHub competitor that charged a monthly fee instead of the model of paying more the more successful you are. Restaurants pay x per month with normal processing fees and that's it.

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut

#333

Post by soup10 »

monitorman wrote: post #322
soup10 wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about stiff competition? Google just lazily cloned it and hijack the results of restaurant searches so they win by default.

You challenge that it is stiff competition in your first sentence, then you define that Google is, indeed, stiff competition in your second.

Hijacking search results because they are sour the Yelp deal didn't go their way isn't competing LOL. They've already been fined billions for similar behavior.

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut

#334

Post by atmz »

shostack wrote: post #259
atmz wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked on it from the Yelp side during the intitial partnership/integration. So, I can't comment on the NoWait perspective, but I will say that almost all of the NoWait software team is still working at Yelp 2+ years post-aquisition.

What's the general Yelp employee vibe like when news like this comes out about features they've worked on? Is it a feeling of "meh, we're growing revenue" or more of a "they completely misunderstood the value we're delivering based on what our users asked for" scenario?

Some of both; people do care, but not everyone loves every feature.

I feel that small business owners tend to be less tech savvy and more open to conspiratorial thinking, which leads to a lot of attention to anything Yelp does. If you read the comments even here on hn, many are not about the actual thing in question and many make accusations of unfair practises which have neve been accompanied by evidence.

In this particular case, we redirect calls about delivery just for restaurants who have signed a contract with GrubHub (which presumably included language allowing GrubHub to do this), so that GrubHub can attribute orders as coming "from Yelp" and charge for them the same way as they do online orders. I think there's some interesting things to discuss there, but it's not an obvious "this is wrong" feature to me.

(and the delivery market as a whole is a little messy -- see the Doordash tipping controversy for an example of something that I do feel is wrong and I would not be happy working on)

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut

#335

Post by dymk »

deogeo wrote: post #248
dymk wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If somebody is willing to pay the GrubHub fee, then they’re worth it. Really basic supply and demand, even if you personally don’t find the service useful. Yelp is still my go-to as an index of nearby restaurants and bars.

They're worth it only because without paying them protection money, your restaurant gets no visibility due to overcrowded marketing by other restaurants that do use GrubHub. Without them, or without Yelp, some other yellow-pages equivalent would be used, and the same total number of orders would be placed. They are literally parasites.

Sounds like they provide a search/aggregation service that many users find useful.

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut

#336

Post by ssalazar »

asdff wrote: post #208
kevin_b_er wrote: post #11

Amazing. Yelp redirects the customer who intended to look up their number in Yelp, redirects them GrubHub. GrubHub then grifts the restaurant for it. These online order companies are grifters. With tricks and sneaky fees, they exploit the restaurants, they exploit the customers, and if delivery is involved, they'll exploit the driver too.

I wonder what the solution is? Restaurants really should be running their own delivery, but that means hiring more staff which many cannot afford to do in a major city where commercial rents are extraordinary.

Sustainable business models? Popping the VC bubble that insists these companies employ parasitic business practices to prop up their massive valuations?

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut

#337

Post by gnicholas »

habosa wrote: post #61

Yelp 5 years ago was a truly valuable service. You could go anywhere (in America) and find good food. Then they lost focus. The app has not improved an ounce since then (seriously why is 'open now' not a default filter) and they've spent a lot of time doing shady things or complaining about other companies. They've tried to get into reservations, delivery, and non-food services but with half-assed attempts at each. T…

> seriously why is 'open now' not a default filter

What app are you using? It’s a default filter for me on iOS, and I’m likely not running the latest version. It’s actually a one-tap filter (button) that appears on every results page. I remember it behaving this way for at least a year or two, and I don’t frequently update my apps.

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut

#338

Post by justaguyhere »

tempsy wrote: post #184

Makes me think really hard about tech’s blind adoration for the “PayPal mafia.” I find myself seeing more instances of soul crushing amoral behavior from this group of entrepreneurs than just about any other group.

Tech is the new wall street. Between privacy concerns, screwing of small businesses, blindly supporting mega corps with copyright... sometimes I feel even wall street is better :(

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut

#339

Post by goobynight »

soup10 wrote: post #333
monitorman wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You challenge that it is stiff competition in your first sentence, then you define that Google is, indeed, stiff competition in your second.

Hijacking search results because they are sour the Yelp deal didn't go their way isn't competing LOL. They've already been fined billions for similar behavior.

They own the search results. Google isn't a public utility that gets hijacked.

Yelp can start their own search competitor if they enjoy(ed) the synergy.

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