Ratings on all platforms are meaningless.

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Food tech (Swiggy, Zomato), taxi aggregators (Uber, Ola), and almost any platform that offers ratings do not go beyond the basic: allow stakeholders to rate and then display an average rating.

It’s worse when there isn’t even a text box to fill — which is the primary implementation for many of these apps.

While Zomato has separated out dining and delivery ratings — a welcome move — I no longer see recent ratings for a restaurant which I did for a bit. No idea what happened there…

It would seem as if “startups” stop being disruptors at the mild taste of commercial success.

Apart from offering a broad “OK” or “not OK,” ratings really do not mean much. No longer can I look at 4.83 and think, “This Uber driver is going to be a delight.” What’s 4.83 over 5 years? Do any of the recent 1 star ratings matter? They don’t move the needle. At all.

I care far more about the recent ratings — perhaps over the last 7 days and the last 30 days — than I do of all-time. Especially when someone has been on the platform for longer than a year.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Pexels.com.

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