Luther Lowe is director of business outreach for Yelp. The position was created in 2008, with good reason: Though only a quarter of the website’s user-generated reviews are for restaurants, Yelp had a reputation within restaurant circles as a headache.
It was often accused of burying bad reviews in exchange for advertising dollars (a charge that Yelp denies); and though 80 percent of the site’s restaurant reviews are three stars or better, chefs are a thin-skinned bunch, and Yelp was thought of as an online pig pile, of fostering a shallow community of less-than-polished, knee-jerk faceless judgments that, more often than not, hurt restaurants.
The first year Lowe attended the National Restaurant Association trade show, he gave a PowerPoint presentation about Yelp, to build some support. It was underwhelming. So, this last spring, he agreed to debate the merits of Yelp.