Google Maps allocates survival across London's restaurants
2 days ago
- #Urban Economics
- #Google Maps
- #Algorithmic Bias
- Google Maps acts as a market maker for restaurants, influencing visibility and survival through algorithmic ranking.
- The platform's prominence signal is based on review volume, velocity, ratings, and brand recognition, creating a cumulative advantage for chains and central venues.
- A machine learning model was built to predict restaurant ratings based on structural characteristics, revealing algorithmic mispricing.
- The London Food Dashboard allows users to discover underrated restaurants by filtering based on ML residuals, cuisine, and other factors.
- Algorithmic visibility disproportionately affects migrant cuisines and independent restaurants, clustering them in areas with weaker platform attention.
- Policy implications suggest the need for auditing ranking algorithms to ensure fairness in local economic survival.