"It takes passion, cash and patience to create a guide like this. And we are not planning to make money from it," said Wang Xing, CEO of Dianping.com.

After all, the Shanghai-headquartered company is hardly short of cash. In 2017, the company－it has more than 250 million active users and listings of 7 million shops and restaurants in 2,800 Chinese cities and counties－generated transactions worth 360 billion yuan ($51.9 billion).

"Black Pearl is not trying to be the Chinese version of the Michelin Guide. Rather, it is aiming to be a world-class list compiled by Chinese for Chinese," said Zhang Chuan, vice president of the company who led the compilation of the guide.