Naver Maps has nearly double the number of Kakao Maps users, which is most noticeable in the in-app reviews of businesses in South Korea. At the time of this article’s writing, Anam’s Goreunhaessal, the famous kimbap restaurant frequented by Korea University (KU) students, has 168 reviews on Kakao Maps versus 2,714 reviews on Naver Maps. On the Naver app, the average star review for the restaurant is 4.51, whilst on Kakao it is 4.4. However, a new Naver policy plans to get rid of average star ratings altogether by the end of the year. In its place, the app developed a keyword-review system that analyzes written reviews and showcases the most notable features of a business. Goreunhaessal, for example, has 735 reviews containing the phrase “the food is delicious”, allowing users to better understand what the shop’s selling point truly is.

All That Glitters is Not Gold

The star-based rating system has its advantages in terms of simplicity and effectiveness. With a press of a button, consumers can quickly share their thoughts and evaluate products without spending too much time researching. However, star ratings are also much more susceptible to sabotage than other word-based review systems, and this sabotage is not unique to just one field. In fact, it is so common that there exists a term for such sabotage: review bombing. The act of review bombing is characterized by large swaths of people leaving negative reviews – usually employing star-rating or other percentage-based systems – in order to express their dissatisfaction.

Review bombing originated in the world of gaming around 2008, but the practice has become so prevalent and destructive that checks and balances had to be implemented in order to curtail the effects of these bad-faith negative reviews in virtually all markets, whether they be media or business. Notoriously, the game *Warcraft 3: Reforged* had garnered such negative reviews that it became the lowest-ranking game of all time on the media review website Metacritic, despite being an installment in one of the most successful gaming franchises in the world.

The motivation behind review bombing seems to stem entirely from consumers feeling betrayed. Sometimes, this is due to an issue of ethics, such as when singer Sia made a film about autistic people which many in the community viewed as highly offensive. Other times, it is simply a matter of personal expectations. In September 2022, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series, which premiered on Amazon Prime, was highly criticized by fans for having Black actors playing major roles in the show, which audiences perceived to be “inaccurate”. The backlash in reviews was so severe that Amazon temporarily suspended reviews for the show. Naver has taken an entirely different approach and developed an alternative system that would make this practice far harder to execute, since a more coordinated effort would have to be made to ensure consistency in review-bombing keywords.

Abolishing The Average Star Rating

Naver Maps’ has thus scheduled the removal of the “average star rating” system, a system under which businesses must display their average customer score on the app. This score may come across as arbitrary to some since there is no clear grading rubric in place to accompany the one-to-five-star scale, which has led Naver to its decision to remove the average star rating from its system entirely by year’s end. Of course, community reviews are still an integral part of modern business etiquette, but it seems as if this black-and-white system has been ineffective in its goal of allowing consumers to base their decisions on reviews.

In a comment given to The Granite Tower (GT) by Naver Place senior lead, Lee Yung-seong, the company representative states, “there were limitations to the previous rating system which overshadowed the unique strengths and characteristics of the small and medium-sized businesses the system was intended to help”. “The new keyword-based review system,” elaborated Lee, “was introduced to benefit both customers and offline business owners, and Naver will continue to evaluate its review system to ensure that both business owners and customers can easily give and receive constructive feedback.”

Small and medium-sized enterprise owners also seem to prefer the new keyword-based system. In a survey conducted by GT of 50 non-franchise business owners in the Anam area, an overwhelming majority of those aware of Naver’s change found the new system to be better than the old star-rating one. A sentiment echoed throughout the survey by business owners was that allowing customers to be specific about what they like about a place lead to the owners’ better understanding of consumer trends and desires. By focusing on a business’ “cherry on top” feature, rather than general averages which made a highly subjective opinion into an objective rating, Naver decided to take a bold step away from other navigation apps.

The New System Is Far from Perfect

Despite the support for the new keyword-based review system, it is not without its flaws. Whereas a star-based system will also show negative reviews, the keyword system, meant only to highlight a business’ best attributes, will typically not show any criticisms against a business. Businesses which operate under less-than-hygienic conditions, for example, will be able to hide this fact from the casual Naver Maps user. While in the past, this hypothetical business’ 1.5-star rating would have kept customers away, with the abolishment of the average star rating, this possible “red flag” will go unnoticed. This forces consumers to be more vigilant when searching for businesses to support, a task not everyone is willing to undertake. So, while Naver is ahead of the curve with regards to helping business owners gain new interest, the path it chose to take seems to be the “easy way out”.

Despite this apparent lack, Naver Maps is one of the only popular navigation apps bold enough to take such a drast i c step by ridding themselves of this ubiquitous feature present in all other popular apps. In contrast, Kakao Maps and Google Maps show no intentions of disposing of their current star-based ratings, although it is notable to mention that Google has been developing its own custom search features which prioritize users’ ethical preferences, such as their stance on gay rights, to show businesses which support the same ideals as the user. It is interesting to see how these apps will continue to diverge and develop as they try to appeal to an ever-changing market and consumer base.