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Comment by cyberrock | Hacker News Reader

In the past I've heard that TripAdvisor has 60% market share for local reviews in the UK. Did Google Maps really climb that quickly? Are Instagram and TikTok not shaping tastes in London too? I feel like she might be assigning too much power to it just because that's what she used.

That's not to say I don't have gripes with how Google Maps works, but I just don't know why the other factors were not considered.

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I don’t think I’ve met anyone in the UK who routinely checked tripadvisor for anything!

I just checked a few local restaurants to me in London that opened in the last few years, and the ratio of reviews is about 16:1 for google maps. It looks like stuff that’s been around longer has a much better ratio towards trip advisor though.

Almost certainly Instagram/tiktok are though. I know a few places which have been ruined by becoming TikTok tourist hotspots.

'I don’t think I’ve met anyone in the UK who routinely checked tripadvisor for anything!'

Counterpoint: I have met people in the UK who's lives revolve around doing nothing but.

Not in the UK, but from Romania, I last checked Tripadvisor back in 2012, and that was for a holiday stay in the Greek islands. Google Maps has eaten the lunch of almost all of the entrants in this space, and I say that having worked for a local/Romanian "Google places"-type of company, back in 2010-2012 (after which Google Places came in, ~~stole~~ scrapped some of our data and some of our direct competitor's data and put us both out of that business).

I'd be curious to read that whole story of Google putting the conpany out of business. Would you consider writing about it in a post?

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