The neural network went through restaurants – Kommersant FM
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Market participants did not appreciate the new restaurant guide from Yandex. The company introduced an analogue of Michelin. But unlike the international project, the Ultima Guide selection was compiled by a neural network. She analyzed more than 30 thousand sites and thousands of reviews on Yandex Maps. Not without the involvement of several dozen experts. The result was a catalog of 50 supposedly best establishments in Moscow. Why do market participants criticize him? Ivan Yakunin will tell you.
At first glance, there is nothing unusual in the guide. Michelin-starred White Rabbit and Twins Garden, Beluga and Sakhalin are on point. In addition, in March 2022, the internationally recognized French guide froze projects in Russia, so there is a niche.
In the Yandex project, each restaurant has its own card: a description of the cuisine, the average bill, as well as information about whether they offer breakfast, live music, a wine library and delivery. But some positions surprised me. For example, the guide included a kiosk called “MeetPoint”, where you can only eat kofta, and then on the street. Gastro-journalist Roman Loshmanov asks:
“MeatPoint?” But besides it, there are quite a lot of similar places. Why was “MeatPoint” included in the guide? Did the neural network choose this? Or are they experts who only know this establishment, but don’t know about other places? What is the objectivity of a restaurant guide? This is when people evaluate a restaurant according to some predetermined rules. Food has its own criteria, service has others. And here it analyzes the neural network. The rules of its operation, the algorithm, are at least opaque. How did they rate the quality of the visits? The main thing is, what kind of data was processed by the neural network?”
Yandex Food explained that the guide did not include classic bars and coffee shops, food malls, as well as large chains, because such establishments should be assessed by different criteria than classic restaurants. Some industry representatives are unhappy with this fact. In their opinion, such a guide cannot be called objective. So, in particular, says the ombudsman of the Moscow restaurant market Sergei Mironov:
“Having a guide is important for the restaurant market. But I don’t like the way Yandex made it at all. Very often, when some guides do something without consulting the community, it was impossible to discard large serious players. The guide becomes incomplete and very subjective. The Pupkin restaurant, which no one goes to, turned out to be higher than, for example, Coffeemania, which everyone knows. Talk to us, talk to the federation of restaurateurs, listen to our opinion, the opinion of key market players. In my opinion, what they did was not entirely correct, I really hope that everything will be corrected.”
It is unclear why other major players were not included in the guide: Dr. Zhivago, She by Ksenia Sobchak, “Northerners” and “Turandot”. After all, these are places where it is better to book a table in advance, and the rating in the same Yandex Maps is more than 4.8. The Yandex selection did not include the Ava restaurant on Patriarch’s, but it, by the way, entered the top ten according to the independent Where to eat 2023 award, awarded by the association of Russian gastronomic journalists.
As the company said, the Ultima Guide catalog is not a rating, but simply recommendations for visiting. The establishments are located not by level of prestige and quality, but alphabetically. Perhaps this is why being included in the guide for market players is not yet a priority goal, notes White Rabbit restaurant manager Daria Belyaeva:
“For us, this is an indicator of the trust of our guests. Firstly, it is both pleasant and also motivates us to work and delight our guests, to do everything better. If we hadn’t gotten in, it wouldn’t have affected our work in any way, we would also have done our job efficiently and well.”
However, Yandex did not explain how to get into this guide, even if such a desire arises. But what is known for sure is that the rating will be compiled for other Russian cities. True, the selection criteria, despite criticism from industry representatives, will remain the same: neural network analysis, selection of experts and survey of establishment visitors.
Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.
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