Shoppers can check into the reviews site to see whether restaurants, shops, museums, and other establishments accept digital currency payments.
San Francisco-based company Yelp has introduced a new function that will allow bitcoin-accepting businesses to promote digital currency through its platform.
The company listed businesses that accept bitcoin. It also included information about the forms of payment, whether it credit cards or cash.
The company confirmed the news on its official blog post: “We’re constantly thinking about how to make our business attributes more useful for consumers and businesses. That’s why we’re excited to announce that as of today, we’re adding a new attribute: ‘Accepts Bitcoin: Yes’.”
The businesses that accept bitcoin can take advantage of the new attribute by updating their profile on biz.yelp.com.
The new feature is visible on Yelp profiles under the section “More business info”. The section also includes such attributes as whether the businesses accept credit cards or has available parking.
Besides bitcoin payments, Yelp offers such options as whether the business is open, provide delivery, pet friendly, their phone number and other.
The new attribute ‘Accept Bitcoin’ helps Yelp to make its business more useful for its customers.
Yelp is not the only company that included the cryptocurrency in its listing. Some casinos started accepting bitcoin payments. eBay allowed limited sales of digital currency on its UK and US sites.
Yelp explained why it added the new attribute: “Why does this matter? For those who haven’t heard the buzz about Bitcoin, it’s a new payment technology that allows consumers and businesses to make fast, secure and low-cost digital payments from any Internet-enabled device.”
“Bitcoin also allows for consumers and businesses to transact without having to store sensitive data like a credit card number. Finally, like cash, Bitcoin’s transactions are one-way, so businesses don’t have to worry about chargebacks.”
Yelp, which has over 100 million visitors, will bring bitcoin more into the mainstream. It will raise bitcoin awareness. Still, it is unknown whether users will choose businesses that accept bitcoin.
Harlan Dietrich, an owner of Texas-based store Brave New Books, has been accepting bitcoin for 20 months and recently started using Yelp.
Dietrich said to the merchant directory provider that it would delete its account if Yelp would not accept bitcoin, although he created an account before this announcement. Dietrich is now happy that Yelp introduced a new attribute.
He also added: “I think it’s great that we’re specifically targeting [early tech adopters] through a service like Yelp.”
Yelp hopes that the introduction of bitcoin will provide a new way for consumers to connect with great local businesses.
Polina is an undergraduate student at Belarusian State Economic University (BSEU) where she is studying at the faculty of International Business Communication for a degree specializing in Intercultural Communication. In her spare time she enjoys drawing, music and travelling.
