Over 11.1 Million Users of Delivery Apps Including 'Baedal Minjok'
Reviews Are Active but No Way to Stop 'Problematic Customers'
Some Small Business Owners Sigh Over Malicious Defamation Posts
Photo titled "Owner Devastated After Reading Reviews" Recently Posted on an Online Community / Photo by Baedal Minjok Delivery App Screenshot
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ga-yeon] "It does hurt to see maliciously written reviews."
As the number of delivery app users has increased, various platforms such as Baedal Minjok, Yogiyo, Baedaltong, Uber Eats, and Coupang Eats have emerged.
From the customer's perspective, they can compare and analyze various restaurants to order tastier food. However, some people intentionally leave malicious reviews, causing silent distress for self-employed business owners.
Because of this, there are ongoing calls to establish ways to protect self-employed business owners from so-called "problematic customers." Defamatory reviews can cause mental and financial damage to these business owners.
According to mobile big data platform company IGAWorks last year, based on Android OS in November of the same year, the number of domestic delivery app users was 8,857,421 for Baedal Minjok and 4,903,213 for Yogiyo. Baedaltong, Coupang Eats, and Foodfly recorded 427,413, 185,519, and 24,355 users respectively.
The number of users for the top three delivery services, excluding overlapping users, reached 11.1 million.
The problem lies in malicious reviews. Recently, a post titled "A Business Owner Heartbroken by Reviews" was uploaded on SNS and online communities.
According to the post, one customer wrote in a delivery app review, "I ordered gopchang (beef intestines), dakbal (chicken feet), and fried rice. The gopchang smelled rancid, so I threw it all away. It would be better not to provide seaweed soup to avoid complaints," along with photos showing the food being thrown into the trash.
In response, the owner commented, "I sincerely apologize that you could not enjoy a delicious meal. After seeing this review, I closed the store early yesterday as I was deeply affected. Seeing photos of food being thrown into the trash broke my heart, and today was so hard I felt like dying."
Additionally, some netizens have been sharing posts on online communities titled "Delivery Review Tips," suggesting, "If you want to ruin a bad restaurant's business for a day, post a review right at opening time."
A in their 40s, who has been running a restaurant in Yongsan-gu, Seoul for over 10 years, said, "It would be nice if every customer said they enjoyed the food, but everyone has different tastes. So I think reviews like 'It didn't suit my taste' or 'It was bad' are inevitable."
However, they added, "Sometimes I see reviews that go beyond simple dislike to the point where I wonder if they are intentionally written to offend. On those days, I can't focus on work at all. Since these are recorded and visible to other customers, there's no way to block them, which is frustrating."
B, a 28-year-old office worker, said, "I live alone and use delivery apps about three times a week. When I skim through the review section before ordering, I often see people leaving reviews like that."
He added, "I think measures should be taken to prevent such people from leaving reviews. If the owner can't delete them, there should be a system for monitoring and blind processing or allowing users to report them."
One netizen pointed out, "If the food was bad, shouldn't they just write that and not order again next time? They do this because they know owners pay close attention to reviews."
Other netizens also criticized, saying things like, "Is it really necessary to go that far?", "Would restaurants overturn tables if the food was bad?", and "No matter how bad the food is, I never thought of behaving like that. Their mindset is strange."
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