Its such a refreshing news for us all .. the last word in F&B market place “ZOMATO” did it again. With 62.5 million (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zomato) user base and almost 1,60,000 restaurants listed and reviewed by people across the globe I fail to understand how could their rating system have such a flaw/loophole as below :
One case in particular : One Restaurant in Dwarka has been rated as 4.3 (excellent rating by Zomato standard) with 53 votes( non approved) out of which 6 are spam as per Zomato). See below :
But if we dig inside we have a very different story altogether. Out of the 47 Review/Votes—9 reviews are by a foodie named Neeraj ;11 reviews by a foodie Sachin ; 3 reviews by Gaurav ; 2 review by Rakesh. The total works out to be 25. All these reviews/Voting have been taken into consideration while rating this restaurant and it works out to be 47 as listed on the site as on 8th Nov 2013, 13:18 Hrs (IST). However, Zomato has just reported 6 spam votings only.
Few Reviews Snapshots:
More interesting is the contradiction they have in one of their notes :
On one hand ZOMATO writes very specifically —- “Warning: this section might contain fake reviews and spam.” But on the other this very spam or fake voting is reflected in the rating of the Restaurant in a particular area( which might not be a true picture ). In this case its on TOP in an area called Dwarka. Wow.
With millions of people (including me both as foodie & foodpreneur) relying on ZOMATO reviews and ratings this comes as a shock to me. Are we to understand that ratings and reviews can be so easily manipulated on Zomato ?
The Question is ” Is it acceptable” ?
Next time if you order from a 4.3 rating Restaurant will you still have the same mindset ?
Don’t hesitate … reply in numbers big enough that ZOMATO takes notice and makes rating more robust & accountable for us all to enjoy without worrying about the authenticity of the rating …. after all ZOMATO is our Biggest Desi Consumer Internet Company & this is the least we can expect from them.
Rajeev Roy
rajeev@zephyr.in
(PS: I love Zomato ….You guys ROCK … “Foodiebay to Zomato — A case study in itself” )
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