It goes without saying, 2020 has been a rough year. COVID-19 has shaken the global economy and forced many businesses to shut their doors permanently. As the effects of the pandemic continue to wreak havoc on businesses around the world, there is some good news emerging from this crisis for Black business owners.

According to a report obtained by Business Insider, “search activity for Black-owned businesses on Yelp increased by 7,043% in the last two months compared to the same period in 2019. Yelp users searched for Black-owned businesses over 2.5 million times between May 25 to July 10. In 2019, there were around 35,000 similar searches during the same period.”

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It seems the resurgence of the Black Lives Matters movement following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent “Blackout Day” movement on July 7, have brought awareness and growing interest in supporting Black-owned businesses across the globe.  

“In general, most of the spikes we see are tied to holidays and events,” Justin Norman, Yelp’s vice president of data science, told Business Insider. “We haven’t seen a previous movement-based spike to date and we’re thrilled and inspired by the continued support and increase in searches for Black-owned businesses.”

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Reports show the most searched businesses are Black-owned restaurants and bookstores, with restaurant searches up by 2,508% and bookstore searches up by 1,437% compared to last year, according to the same report.

Justin Norman from Yelp believes this shift in consumer behavior and habit is more than just a trend and will continue to increase moving forward. Let’s hope it does and these searches result in dollars spent, so we can keep these Black-owned businesses alive and thriving for years to come.