Business / Zomato Realizes it Has a ‘Solicitation’ Problem, And Has Decided to Take Action

Zomato, a popular restaurant discovery, reviews & food delivery platform has identified that it has what it calls a ‘solicitation’ problem on platform and has removed more than 300 high activity users. They classify solicitation as influential foodies are incentivised in some cases for monetary gains to write about restaurants. Took action against them, we have worked relentlessly to identify both restaurants & users.

If you had felt all along that there was something very amiss with the entire concept of ‘influencers’ hawking products on social media platforms such as Instagram with enthusiastic reviews, you were probably right. Zomato, a popular restaurant discovery, reviews and food delivery platform has identified that it has what it calls a ‘solicitation’ problem on the platform and has removed more than 300 high activity users.

As per Zomato, they classify this ‘solicitation’ as, “where influential foodies are incentivised or offer to join hands — in some cases for monetary gains — to write about restaurants.” The company says they took action against the 300+ users after gathering sufficient evidence to prove their involvement in these unethical, and sometimes even illegal practices. “As a core Zomato value, we have worked relentlessly to identify both restaurants and users who engage in unethical means to influence restaurant ratings and reviews,” says Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO, Zomato.