Businessweek

Yelp Inc. operates a platform that connects people with local businesses. The company’s users have contributed a total of approximately 36.0 million cumulative reviews of almost every type of local business, from restaurants, boutiques, and salons to dentists, mechanics, plumbers, and more. Products The company provides both free and paid products to local businesses. In addition, it enables local businesses and national advertisers to deliver targeted advertising to local audiences through its platform. Local Business Free Online Business Account: The company enables businesses to create a free online business account and claim the page for each of their business locations. With their free business accounts, businesses could view business trends (statistics and charts reflecting the performance of a business’s page on its platform), message customers (by replying to reviews either publicly or privately), update information (address and hours of operation), and offer Yelp Deals and Gift Certificates. Enhanced Listing: The company’s enhanced listing solution eliminates search advertising from the businesses’ profile pages and allows them to incorporate a video clip or photo slide show on the pages. Search and Other Ads: The company allows local businesses to promote themselves as a sponsored search result on its platform or on related business pages. Yelp Deals: The company’s Yelp Deals product allows local business owners to create promotional discounted deals for their products and services, which are marketed to consumers through its platform. The company primarily offers deals on its platform that are focused on demand fulfillment where businesses could target intent-driven consumers who are searching for a product or service on its platform. Gift Certificates: The company’s Gift Certificates product allows local business owners to sell full-price gift certificates directly to customers through their business profile page. It processes various consumer payments and remits to the business the revenue share of any Gift Certificate purchased. National/Brand Advertisers Traditional Display Advertising: The company offers its advertising solution for national brands that want to improve their local presence. These solutions consist of search and display ads (both graphic and text) on its Website, which are sold to advertisers on a per-impression basis. Its national advertisers include major brands in the automobile, financial services, logistics, consumer goods, and health and fitness industries. Transaction Partners OpenTable: The company’s partnership, through a written agreement, with OpenTable provides consumers the ability to reserve seats directly on the business listing pages of restaurants that participate in OpenTable’s network. Orbitz: The company’s partnership, through a written agreement, with Orbitz allows consumers to book rooms directly on the business listing pages of hotels that affiliate with Orbitz. Sales and Marketing The company’s business revolves around three primary constituencies: Contributors: The company fosters and supports vibrant communities of contributors in local markets across the United States, Canada, Europe, Singapore, and Australia. These contributors provide information about local businesses, such as reviews, ratings, and photos. Consumers: The company’s platform is transforming the way people discover local businesses. Local Businesses: The company’s platform provides local businesses with various free and paid services. Local businesses could register a business account for free and ‘claim’ their Yelp business page for each of their locations, allowing them to improve the page with additional information about their businesses and respond to consumer reviews. Local businesses could also pay for premium services to promote themselves through targeted search advertising, discounted offers, and further improvements to their business page. Network Effect: The company’s platform helps people find local businesses to meet their everyday needs. Yelp Mobile: The company helps consumers make decisions on the go through both its mobile application and versions of its Website to mobile-based browsers, which it refers to as its mobile Website. The company’s sales force is concentrated in five primary locations—San Francisco, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; New York City, New York; London, the United Kingdom; and Hamburg, Germany. Acquisitions In 2012, the company acquired Qype GmbH, a Germany-based reviews Website. Growth Strategy The company intends to improve its platform and business by focusing on various primary growth strategies, such as growth in existing markets by increasing the number of reviews, attracting more users, increasing usage of current users, and attracting more businesses; expanding to new geographic markets in the united states and internationally; platform expansion, such as Website and mobile, and alternative platforms; and improve monetization by improving its sales force and expanding its portfolio of revenue-generating products. Intellectual Property As of December 31, 2012, the company had approximately 84 trademarks and service marks registered or pending in approximately 26 countries or regions. Its registration efforts have focused on gaining protection of various trademarks, such as Yelp and the Yelp burst logo. Competition The company competes with Internet search engines, such as Google, Yahoo!