Yelp joins 15 Percent Pledge to increase representation of Black-owned businesses

LISBON (Reuters) – Crowdsourced business review website Yelp committed on Monday to the Fifteen Percent Pledge, a U.S. campaign for retailers and companies to increase representation of Black-owned businesses to 15%, the campaign said in a statement.

Yelp is the sixth major company to join the Pledge, founded in May by Brooklyn-based creative director Aurora James, after beauty retailer Sephora, furniture brand West Elm, cannabis retailer Med Men, online designer rental service Rent The Runway, and Vogue Magazine.

The company said by the first quarter of 2021, 15% of community events it hosted would feature Black-owned businesses and that Black-owned businesses would constitute 15% of the vendors its team works with for internal events.

It also plans for 15% of its Instagram content to feature Black-owned businesses and 15% of its lists to focus on and include them.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; editing by David Evans)