Yelp
Yelp Inc. is an American company that develops the Yelp.com website and the Yelp mobile app, which publishes crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. It also operates Yelp Guest Manager, a table reservation service. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
This article is about the Internet company. For other uses, see Yelp (disambiguation).Type of business
October 2004
Jeremy Stoppelman (6.3%)
- Jeremy Stoppelman (CEO)
- Jed Nachman (COO)
- David Schwarzbach (CFO)
Local search, business ratings and reviews, online food delivery, local homeowner services
US$1.34 billion (2023)
US$79 million (2023)
US$99 million (2023)
US$1.01 billion (2023)
US$750 million (2023)
4,872 (2023)
Yelp was founded in 2004 by former PayPal employees Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman. It has since become one of the leading sources of user-generated reviews and ratings for businesses.
Yelp grew in usage and raised several rounds of funding in the following years. By 2010, it had $30 million in revenue, and the website had published about 4.5 million crowd-sourced reviews. From 2009 to 2012, Yelp expanded throughout Europe and Asia. In 2009, it entered unsuccessful negotiations to be acquired by Google. Yelp became a public company via an initial public offering in March 2012 and became profitable for the first time two years later.[3][4]
As of December 31, 2021, approximately 244.4 million reviews were available on its business listing pages. In 2021, the company had 46 million unique visitors to its desktop webpages and 56.7 million unique visitors to its mobile sites. Over 50% of the company's audience has an annual household income of more than $100,000.[5]
The company has been accused of using unfair practices to raise revenue from the businesses that are reviewed on its site – e.g., by presenting more negative review information for companies that do not purchase its advertising services or by prominently featuring advertisements of the competitors of such non-paying companies or conversely by excluding negative reviews from companies' overall rating on the basis that the reviews "are not currently recommended".[6] There have also been complaints of aggressive and misleading tactics by some of its advertising sales representatives. The company's review system's reliability has also been affected by the submission of fake reviews by external users, such as false positive reviews submitted by a company to promote its own business or false negative reviews submitted about competing businesses – a practice sometimes known as "astroturfing", which the company has tried to combat in various ways.
Type of site
Local online reviews
15 languages[92]
Yelp, Inc.
Yes
Optional
142 million unique visitors per month
2004
Online
Python, Java, and a custom framework
Relationship with businesses[edit]
A Harvard Business School study published in 2011 found that each "star" in a Yelp rating affected the business owner's sales by 5–9%.[129][130] A 2012 study by two University of California, Berkeley economists found that an increase from 3.5 to 4 stars on Yelp resulted in a 19% increase in the chances of the restaurant being booked during peak hours.[131] A 2014 survey of 300 small business owners done by Yodle found that 78% were concerned about negative reviews. Also, 43% of respondents said they felt online reviews were unfair, because there is no verification that the review is written by a legitimate customer.[130]
Community[edit]
According to Inc. Magazine most reviewers (sometimes called "Yelpers"[17]) are "well-intentioned" and write reviews in order to express themselves, improve their writing, or to be creative. In some cases, they write reviews in order to lash out at corporate interests or businesses they dislike.[16] Reviewers may also be motivated by badges and honors, such as being the first to review a new location,[17] or by praise and attention from other users.[117] Many reviews are written in an entertaining or creative manner.[17] Users can give a review a "thumbs-up" rating, which will cause it to be ranked higher in the review listings.[95] Each day a "Review of the Day" is determined based on a vote by users.[96] According to The Discourse of Online Consumer Reviews many Yelp reviewers are internet-savvy adults aged 18–25 or "suburban baby boomers".[177]
Reviewers are encouraged to use real names and photos.[177] Each year members of the Yelp community are invited or self-nominated to the "Yelp Elite Squad" and some are accepted based on an evaluation of the quality and frequency of their reviews.[178][179] Members may nominate other reviewers for elite status. Users must use their real name and photo on Yelp to qualify for the Elite Squad.[96] To accept a nomination, members must not own a business. Elite Squad Yelpers are governed by a council and estimated to include several thousand members. Yelp does not disclose how the Yelp Elite are selected.[17][178] Elite Squad members are given different color badges based on how long they've been an elite member.[179] The Yelp Elite Squad originated with parties Yelp began throwing for members in 2005,[179] and in 2006 it was formally codified;[178] the name came from a joking reference to prolific reviewers that were invited to Yelp parties as the "Yelp Elite Squad"."[8][16] Members are invited to special opening parties, given gifts, and receive other perks.[8][179] As of 2017, there are over 80 local Elite Squads in North America.[178]
As of 2017, Yelp employed a staff of over 80 community managers that organize parties for prolific reviewers, send encouraging messages to reviewers, and host classes for small business owners.[16] Yelp reviewers are not required to disclose their identity, but Yelp encourages them to do so.[8]