If Yelp is bad for business, why should local businesses use it?

Businesses hate Yelp

There are a myriad of articles online about why Yelp sucks:

Even our own reader Patrick expressed why he feels Yelp is bad for business on our post about how to get more Yelp reviews:

Jun,

[You] did a big disservice to small business by asking them to suport YELP. Yelp is bad for [the] business community and any effort to support them will [continue to affect businesses negatively]. They are first of all not business friendly and most of the Yelpers are bargain hunters. 90% of the reviews are complaints and it has become a complaint forum.

Why do you want business to pay / support a complaint forum. If people really care about business they can talk with the owners and resolve issues. You dont want people to give you a 1 star because they dont like the paint color or they didnt like the owners hair style.

I strongly suggest you should do research and write about how Yelp can hurt local community. Yelp makes a business by pitting customers against business. This is not a healthy model for the economy and local community.

The only way for Yelp to fail is to ignore them and stop their cash flow from businesses. If businesses understand this they will stop support to Yelp.

With so much compelling evidence, should business owners completely shun away Yelp?

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