Yelp Inc Company Profile

Yelp is the leading local business review site in the United States, offering consumers unmatched local business information and businesses a variety of opportunities to connect with purchase-intent driven consumers. Our mission is to connect consumers with great local businesses of all sizes and to provide a convenient platform for each stage of their interaction, from discovery and engagement through the completion of a transaction and beyond

Content. Yelp brings “word of mouth” online through consumer reviews, tips, photos and videos that share their everyday business experiences. Business representatives are also able to provide information about their businesses and respond to reviews, among other things, by registering for a free account and “claiming” the business listing page for each of their locations. As of December 31, 2017, consumers had contributed approximately 148.3 million cumulative reviews of almost every type of local business, and business representatives had claimed approximately 4.2 million business listing pages on Yelp. These contributions drive a powerful network effect whereby the expanded content draws in more consumers (and more prospective contributors), which in turn improves the value proposition of our products to local businesses.

Discovery. Each day, millions of consumers take advantage of our wide-ranging content in their search for great local businesses by visiting Yelps website and mobile app, as well as through third-party services like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant programs, which access Yelp content to respond to local search queries. Businesses that want to promote themselves to our large audience of purchase-intent driven consumers can pay for premium services such as targeted search advertising and further enhancements to their business listing pages.

Engagement. Yelp provides multiple channels for consumers and businesses to engage directly with each other. In addition to writing and responding to reviews, consumers and businesses can communicate through our Request-A-Quote and Message the Business features. We also facilitate consumer engagement with businesses in our restaurants and nightlife categories through Yelp Reservations, our online reservations product, and Yelp Nowait, the waitlist system we acquired in February 2017, which allows consumers to check wait times at restaurants and join waitlists remotely. Our Yelp WiFi Marketing product, which we acquired in April 2017, allows businesses to connect with their customers by offering them access to a free in-store wifi network.

Transactions. The Yelp Platform allows consumers to transact with local businesses directly through our website and mobile app, primarily through integrations with partners ranging from RepairPal (auto repair booking), to GolfNow (tee time booking), to BloomNation (flower ordering). Online food ordering constitutes the largest category of transactions by revenue and volume on the Yelp Platform and is currently available through partners including Eat24, which we sold to Grubhub Holdings Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Grubhub Inc. (“Grubhub”), in October 2017. Concurrently with the closing of our sale of Eat24, we entered into a strategic partnership with Grubhub to expand our online ordering capabilities by integrating Grubhub’s restaurant network onto the Yelp Platform.

Retention and Analytics. In addition to being a point of engagement between consumers and businesses, our Yelp WiFi Marketing product includes an analytics platform that provides wifi as a digital marketing tool to retain and reward customers. The Yelp Cash Back program, which allows consumers receive up to 10% cash back when they shop at participating businesses, provides another tool for businesses to attract and retain loyal customers. We also offer business owners local analytics and insights based on our historical data and other proprietary content through our Yelp Knowledge program, as well as tools to measure the effectiveness of our products, including reporting and advertising-management features, through the Yelp for Business Owners app.