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Tag: Yelp

  • Yelp Equates Asking For Reviews To Spam

    Yelp announced on Wednesday that it has issued a new round of Consumer Alerts, the warnings that appear on businesses’ Yelp pages informing users that they’re not to be trusted. The company didn’t say how many it issued this time around, but it did call out a few businesses by name.

    The company is also discouraging businesses from asking customers for reviews in-store, which many would no doubt argue is when the experience is freshest in their minds. As far as Yelp is concerned, asking for reviews is pretty much like spam.

    Do you think reviews businesses ask for are illegitimate? Let us know what you think.

    “Unfortunately some businesses are trying to sneak through fake reviews in an effort to boost their reputations on Yelp and other review sites,” says Yelp’s Kristen Whisenand. “Others may be encouraging their customers to write reviews from the store, which may not sound all that bad until you ask yourself just how objective you’d be if you were at the dentist’s office and she dropped an iPad on your lap and asked you to write her a quick Yelp review. Solicited reviews are often biased and don’t result in the most accurate overall portrayal of that business. You can also be assured that businesses are almost never asking their unhappy customers for reviews.” Emphasis added.

    Part of the problem (on Yelp’s end) with people leaving reviews from in stores is that they come from the same IP address. It would seem that reviews coming from a single IP address has been one of the biggest factors in the company determining when reviews are spammy. In fact, the company said right in its new post on the subject, that it “looks for businesses that have received a disproportionate number of spammy reviews, like those that originate from the same IP address.”

    This was actually brought up on Bloomberg recently, when a business owner and a representative from Yelp each presented their side of the story. In that, Yelp’s Vincent Sollitto, VP of corporate communications, said: “Yelp has to recommend reviews that they find reliable. The reason that there are a number of positive reviews for Beverly’s [the aforementioned business owner] business that are not being recommended is because in fact ten of them came from the very IP address that was used to claim her business owner’s account, and one of them actually was for a one-star review of a competing business to hers. And so the problem is business owners try to game the system, and websites that don’t try to filter out or verify reliable reviews can get gamed. That’s probably why Yahoo decided to go ahead and use Yelp as the de facto standard for local search.”

    Beverly, who runs a dog training service, responded, “First of all, in some cases, clients are at your house, and can be using your IP address to write something. That is possible. IP address isn’t the best judgment. People can be at a cafe and use IP address, you know. I don’t think the location of a person writing the review is relevant. I had one guy, for instance, that is in my five-star-deleted – i’ve had like 34 deleted five-star reviews now – I mean not recommended – and another fourteen that have been deleted. And meanwhile I only have seven five-star reviews up. So that’s a big ratio. We’re talking a fifty to seven ratio here. I had one guy that had to go to the library and open an account in order to be able to write a review for me because he didn’t have a computer service, and he wanted to be able to review me because I did good work with him, and he was very pleased, and Yelp removed his review because it seemed suspicious or whatever, but he’s a real person.”

    Unless Bloomberg cut it out, Sollitto didn’t really acknowledge her comments about people legitimately using the same IP address.

    “Don’t Ask for Reviews” is one of Yelp’s guidelines. They have a whole page on it in their support center.

    Under the “Why does Yelp discourage businesses from asking for reviews?” section, it says:

    1. Would-be customers might not trust you. Let’s face it, most business owners are only going to ask for reviews from their happy customers, not the unhappy ones. Over time, these self-selected reviews create bias in the business listing — a bias that savvy consumers can smell from a mile away. No business is perfect, and it’s impossible to please 100% of your customers 100% of the time.

    2. Solicited reviews are less likely to be recommended by our automated software, and that will drive you crazy. Why aren’t these reviews recommended? Well, we have the unfortunate task of trying to help our users distinguish between real and fake reviews, and while we think we do a pretty good job at it with our fancy computer algorithms, the harsh reality is that solicited reviews often fall somewhere in between. Imagine, for example, the business owner who “asks” for a review by sticking a laptop in front of a customer and smilingly invites her to write a review while he looks over her shoulder. We don’t need these kinds of reviews, so it shouldn’t be a surprise when they aren’t recommended.

    It later goes on to say, “There is an important distinction between ‘Hey, write a review about me on Yelp,’ [BAD] and ‘Hey, check us out on Yelp!’ [GOOD]. It’s the difference between actively pursuing testimonials and simply creating awareness of your business through social media outlets.”

    Because, you know, you’re going to recommend unhappy users “check you out” on Yelp. What else is a customer going to do when they “check you out” on Yelp besides write a review? If you’re trying to create awareness about your business on social media, you’re not going to say, “Check us out on Yelp.” You’re going to say, “Check us out on Facebook” or “…on Twitter,” etc.

    According to Yelp, recommending that your customers “check you out on Yelp” allows them to “review your online reputation without feeling like they’re being forced to write a review.”

    So, go ahead and suggest that they review your reputation on Yelp after they’ve done business with you, because that will help them somehow?

    “To an established Yelp community member, a reminder of your Yelp presence can act like a dog-whistle prompting them to share their feedback about your business with fellow Yelpers,” adds Yelp.

    Oh. Just don’t suggest that they write a review!

    If you’ve been encouraging people to leave reviews for your business while they’re actually at your business, don’t offer them up your own device to do it. Luckily, last year, Yelp added the ability for users to leave reviews from the Yelp app.

    “Yelpers won’t have to wait until they get home to tell the world why their neighborhood barber is deserving of five shiny stars – they can do it directly from their phones, while they’re on-the-go,” a Yelp product manager wrote in a blog post at the time.

    “We have zero tolerance for those who are trying to manipulate their online reputations in an effort to get ahead of hard-working business owners who are playing by the rules,” says Whisenand. “We encourage businesses to take a hands off approach when it comes to receiving reviews and take advantage of the free suite of tools Yelp provides business owners who are interested in joining the conversations that are happening about them online.”

    What do you think of Yelp’s policy on asking for reviews? Have you suggested that customers “check you out” on Yelp? Did reviews resulting from that escape the review filter? Share your thoughts in the comments.

  • Yelp Launches New Reservations Tool

    Yelp announced the launch of a new free tool for businesses to let customers book reservations online. The tool, called Yelp Reservations, follows the company’s acquisition of SeatMe last year.

    For now, it’s available for businesses in the restaurant and nightlife categories in the US, Canada, UK, and Ireland.

    “Business owners can set up the free Yelp Reservations capability through their Yelp Business Owners Account and start filling tables with the millions of people that come to Yelp looking for a great business to try,” says Yelp’s Alex Kvamme. “Consumers can book straight from the Yelp business listing on mobile or desktop and get a text message reminder, as well as the option to cancel or change a reservation by text. A free widget is also available for businesses to add to their own websites to encourage visitors to book a reservation for their restaurant and attract valuable new business.”

    “Yelp already offers the opportunity to book reservations through Yelp SeatMe and OpenTable, but Yelp Reservations is a great option for businesses that aren’t big or busy enough yet to need the robust functionality of Yelp SeatMe,” Kvamme adds.

    Yelp also announced today that it is looking for more small businesses to join its Small Business Advisory Council. More on that here.

    Image via Yelp

  • Yelp Calls On Small Businesses To Help Them Come Up With Ideas

    Yelp has put a call out for new members of the Yelp Small Business Advisory Council. Any local business owner is encouraged to apply.

    Members participate in an annual summit at Yelp’s headquarter, provide input on products under development, brainstorm new ideas for company executives to consider, and serve as a resource for other business owners who have questions about Yelp’s various offerings.

    “Yelp’s features and services for small business owners have evolved quite a bit over the last four years thanks, in part, to the efforts of Yelp’s Small Business Advisory Council (YSBAC),” says Yelp’s Darnell Holloway. “Since 2010 we’ve regularly met with and solicited feedback from this diverse group of business owners who are selected to represent the greater community of local businesses on Yelp.”

    Yelp says council members have helped it come up with Yelp Metrics, business owner review comments on mobile, the revenue estimate tool, the activity feed, and some performance-based advertising options.

    You can apply here.

    Image: Yelp

  • Yelp Expands Into Argentina, Its 27th Country

    Yelp continues to expand internationally with a launch in Argentina, its 27th market. This comes just two months after Yelp’s Mexico launch, further expanding the company’s presence in Latin America, which also includes Brazil.

    People in Argentina can now create accounts at Yelp.com.ar. The iPhone and Android apps as well as business owner tools will also be available in the country.

    “Our 27th country is one of the world’s largest wine producers and known for their top quality leather goods,” says Miriam Warren, VP New Markets at Yelp. “Whether you’re looking for a meaty Malbec, a delicious dulce de leche, or a cowhide belt to hold up your pants while exploring Argentina’s diverse landscape, locals will now be able to find their favorite businesses on Yelp.”

    “Yelp’s vibrant, global community has contributed more than 57 million rich, local reviews and now people all across Argentina can use Yelp to discover and rate everything from the best steak or empanadas in town to milongas where they dance tango to the nicest hotels by the mountains, the beach or the countryside,” the company says. “Locals will be able to take advantage of Yelp from their desktop or mobile devices in Spanish or in any of the other 14 languages supported.”

    Between its Mexico and Argentina launches, Yelp announced a launch in Japan.

    Yelp is often in the headlines for complaints from business owners. CEO Jeremy Stoppelman indicated that it sees a fair amount of complaints in international markets as well.

    The Better Business Bureau defended the company in a report this week. It gives Yelp an A+ rating.

    Image via Yelp

  • Yelp Wraps Up SBA Event Series, Calls It A Success

    Back in January, Yelp announced a partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration to launch Success With Online Reviews, a series of events to take place in different cities around the country. That has now concluded, and according to Yelp it was successful.

    The series was meant to educate businesses about “what it takes to have success in a world where more consumers are using online reviews to make purchasing decisions.”

    Yelp writes on its blog:

    We concluded our Success With Online Reviews tour last week in Miami, where we were joined by partners from the Small Business Development Center, the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce, and 880 AM the Biz radio host, Pete De La Torre, who broadcasted live from the event. Our panelists included Vic Ruiz, owner of Sweet Dogs, the highest rated hot dog joint on Yelp in Miami, and Julio F. of the Miami Yelp Elite squad. Vic told the audience he built his online reputation by focusing on solid customer service and a great product. As he puts it, “I don’t ask for reviews, I let my food speak for itself.” Julio (who has written over 200 reviews) says he’s motivated to write reviews for the same reason many other Yelpers get involved on our site — a desire to share his experiences with the community in the hopes it helps them find great local businesses.

    From Portland, OR to Atlanta, GA, the Success With Online Reviews tour hit seven major cities and featured two nationally webcasted events. Several thousand small businesses registered for these workshops and attendees walked away with some valuable insights.

    While this particular series has concluded, Yelp notes that it will still be conducting regular webinars, which you can sign up for here.

    Yelp is often criticized by business owners, who complain to organizations like the FTC and the Better Business Bureau, but according to a report this week, the BBB has gone on the record defending the company. Yelp currently has an A+ rating.

    Image via Yelp

  • Better Business Bureau Defends Yelp

    Rarely does a week go by these days in which there isn’t at least one report of business owners complaining about Yelp’s business practices. The latest one comes from an ABC affiliate out of Philadelphia, which conducted an investigation of its own.

    Has your business had a legitimate gripe with Yelp? Let us know in the comments.

    It says it was contacted by small business owners saying their favorable reviews were reduced because they wouldn’t pay Yelp to advertise. You know the story by now, I’m sure. This particular version comes from a Pizza place accusing Yelp of filtering positive reviews and lowering its rating after it refused to pay for ads. You can get the specific complaints here, but it’s essentially the same same story we hear time and time again.

    Yelp always dismisses these accusations as conspiracy theories, and maintains that they’re simply not true, yet they just keep coming.

    This particular report includes some words from the Better Business Bureau on the situation. Here’s the relevant snippet:

    Better Business Bureau records show in the past 6 months over 50 complaints have been filed about what business owners call aggressive advertising practices.In the same time, over 100 businesses have complained about Yelp filtering out positive reviews.

    “There are probably a lot more. There are probably 500, 1000 businesses out there that feel this has happened to them,” Gene O’Neill of the BBB said.

    However, the Better Business Bureau tells Action News after investigating it doesn’t feel aggressive advertising is a part of Yelp’s business model and currently gives the review site an A+ rating.

    You can see that A+ rating right here. Factors listed as the reason for the rating include:

    • Length of time business has been operating.
    • Complaint volume filed with BBB for business of this size.
    • Response to 1404 complaint(s) filed against business.
    • Resolution of complaint(s) filed against business.
    • BBB has sufficient background information on this business.

    It does list 1,404 closed complaints for Yelp from over the last three years with over 500 of them listed as advertising/sales issues. 882 are listed as problems with the product/service. 570 of the total complaints were closed in the last twelve months.

    The most recent review of Yelp’s complaints was done in April 2014, according to the site.

    “Complaints concern, among other things, business owners who are concerned that their positive reviews are being filtered and negative reviews are remaining, potentially giving consumers a skewed view of their business,” it says. “Some complaints also concern business owners alleging that there are false or inaccurate reviews on their Yelp listing that Yelp will not remove, though the business owner has provided proof or substantiation that the review is false or inaccurate.”

    Last month, the FTC disclosed that there had been 2,046 complaints filed against Yelp dating from 2008 to March 4th, 2014.

    Yelp released its first quarter numbers last week, with an impressive 66% year-over-year increase in revenue, though the company still struggles in the profit department.

    During Yelp’s earnings call, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said that as the company grows internationally, it sees complaints in other markets as well, with a specific “uptick in noise” in Germany.

    Do you agree with the BBB’s rating for Yelp? Let us know in the comments.

    Image via Yelp

  • Yelp Earnings Released, Revenue Up 65% YoY

    Yelp just released its earnings report for the first quarter with revenue at $76.4 billion, up 66% from the same period last year.

    Cumulative reviews grew by 46% year-over-year, reaching about 57 million, with active business accounts growing 65% to 74,000. Average unique monthly visitors were 132 million, up 30% year-over-year. Average monthly mobile unique visitors grew 52% to 61 million.

    Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said, “We had a great start to the year and are excited about the large opportunity ahead of us. Yelp is becoming the gold standard in local search. In the first quarter, we announced our integration into Yahoo local search, building on our existing partnerships with Apple Maps and Bing. We also entered into an advertising partnership with YP.com which will enable us to introduce Yelp to an even broader pool of business owners. Looking to the rest of the year, we will continue to support and engage our community of Yelpers, expand geographically and create innovative products that close the loop with business owners.”

    He said in the earnings call that they’re very happy with how things are going internationally, as an analyst pointed out how little it is contributing to revenue so far.

    He also said there’s a lot of leverage to be gained from adding additional partners to the Yelp Platform.

    According to Stoppelman all their traffic comes organically, and they don’t do any SEM.

    Yelp’s call-to-action drove over 100,000 leads to customers in the last period, according to the company.

    Stoppelman was asked if Yelp sees the same kind of controversies with reviews in international markets as it sees in the U.S. His response was that there are bound to be some controversies because reviews are opinions. About 20% are negative, and the majority are neutral to positive, he said, adding that negative reviews are “far less frequent than you might imagine”. Internationally, he acknowledges, they do see compaints, with an “uptick in noise” in Germany in particular. They hear complaints in about every market they’re in he said, noting that it’s “the nature of the beast”.

    He also said he thinks Yelp has gotten better about communicating how it polices the site.

    Here’s the release in its entirety:

    SAN FRANCISCO, April 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects consumers with great local businesses, today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2014.

    • Net revenue was $76.4 million in the first quarter of 2014, reflecting 66% growth from the first quarter of 2013
    • Cumulative reviews grew 46% year over year to approximately 57 million
    • Average monthly unique visitors grew 30% year over year to approximately 132 million* and average monthly mobile unique visitors grew 52% year over year to approximately 61 million**
    • Active local business accounts grew 65% year over year to approximately 74 thousand

    Net loss in the first quarter of 2014 was $(2.6) million, or $(0.04) per share, compared to a net loss of $(4.8) million, or $(0.08)per share, in the first quarter of 2013.  Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2014 was approximately $8.5 million, compared to $3.2 million for the first quarter of 2013.

    “We had a great start to the year and are excited about the large opportunity ahead of us,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp’s chief executive officer.  “Yelp is becoming the gold standard in local search.  In the first quarter, we announced our integration into Yahoo local search, building on our existing partnerships with Apple Maps and Bing.  We also entered into an advertising partnership with YP.com which will enable us to introduce Yelp to an even broader pool of business owners.  Looking to the rest of the year, we will continue to support and engage our community of Yelpers, expand geographically and create innovative products that close the loop with business owners.”

    “We continue to deliver outstanding results with year over year revenue growth of 66%,” added Rob Krolik, Yelp’s chief financial officer.  “We are pleased to announce that we are raising guidance for the full year due to the momentum we’re seeing in the business.  We will also continue to invest in hiring, geographic expansion and product innovation to capture the large local opportunity in front of us.”

    Business Highlights

    • Community engagement:  Yelp continues to support and engage its community.  In the first quarter, Yelp upgraded the business listing page with larger photos and more relevant review highlights to emphasize what consumers find most useful and also rolled out the ability to add photos through the mobile web.  In the first quarter, Yelp had approximately 61 million mobile unique visitors on a monthly average basis and approximately 35% of new reviews were contributed through mobile devices.
    • Geographic expansion:  Yelp continues to expand globally.  In the first quarter, international reviews grew 210% and international traffic grew 95% year over year.  Yelp expanded its presence in Latin America and Asia with the launch ofMexico and Japan, its 25th and 26th countries.  Yelp also launched new markets in Quebec City, Canada and Lisbon, Portugal and is now in a total of 120 Yelp markets worldwide.
    • Brand ubiquity:  Yelp is becoming the de facto standard in local search and consumers and other companies recognize its leadership in the local space.  In the first quarter, Yelp announced its integration into Yahoo local search as well as an advertising partnership with YP.com.

    Business Outlook

    As of today, Yelp is providing its outlook for the second quarter of 2014 and full year 2014.

    • For the second quarter of 2014, net revenue is expected to be in the range of $85 million to $86 million, representing growth of approximately 55% compared to the second quarter of 2013.  Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of$11.5 million to $12.5 million.  Stock-based compensation is expected to be in the range of $10 million to $11 million, and depreciation and amortization is expected to be approximately 5% of revenue.
    • For the full year of 2014, net revenue is expected to be in the range of $363 million to $367 million, representing growth of approximately 57% compared to the full year of 2013.  Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $56 million to $60 million.  Stock-based compensation is expected to be in the range of $43 million to $45 million, and depreciation and amortization is expected to be approximately 5% of revenue.

    Quarterly Conference Call

    To access the call, please dial 1 (800) 708-4539, or outside the U.S. 1 (847) 619-6396, with Passcode 37094125, at least five minutes prior to the 1:30 p.m. PT start time.  A live webcast of the call will also be available at http://www.yelp-ir.com under the Events & Presentations menu.  An audio replay will be available between 4:00 p.m. PT April 30, 2014 and 11:59 p.m. PT May 14, 2014 by calling 1 (888) 843-7419 or 1 (630) 652-3042, with Passcode 37094125.  The replay will also be available on the Company’s website at http://www.yelp-ir.com.

    About Yelp

    Yelp Inc. (http://www.yelp.com) connects people with great local businesses. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp communities have taken root in major metros across 26 countries. Yelp had a monthly average of approximately 132 million unique visitors in the first quarter 2014*. By the end of the same quarter, Yelpers had written approximately 57 million rich, local reviews, making Yelp the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists. Approximately 61 million** unique visitors visited Yelp via their mobile device on a monthly average basis during Q1 2014.

    * Source: Google Analytics

    ** Average monthly mobile unique visitors based on the number of unique visitors accessing Yelp via mobile web and unique devices accessing the app on a monthly average basis over a given three-month period.

    Non-GAAP Financial Measures

    This press release includes information relating to Adjusted EBITDA, which the Securities and Exchange Commission has defined as a “non-GAAP financial measures.” Adjusted EBITDA has been included in this press release because it is a key measure used by the Company’s management and board of directors to understand and evaluate core operating performance and trends, to prepare and approve its annual budget and to develop short- and long-term operational plans. The presentation of this financial information, which is not prepared under any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles, is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”).

    Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of the Company’s results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:

    • although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and adjusted EBITDA does not reflect cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements;
    • adjusted EBITDA does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, the Company’s working capital needs;
    • adjusted EBITDA does not consider the potentially dilutive impact of equity-based compensation;
    • adjusted EBITDA does not reflect tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us;
    • adjusted EBITDA does not take into account restructuring and integration costs associated with our acquisition of Qype; and
    • other companies, including those in the Company’s industry, may calculate adjusted EBITDA differently, which reduces its usefulness as a comparative measure.

    Because of these limitations, you should consider adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including various cash flow metrics, net income (loss) and the Company’s other GAAP results. Additionally, the Company has not reconciled its adjusted EBITDA outlook for the second quarter and full year 2014 to its net income (loss) outlook because it does not provide an outlook for other income (expense) and provision for income taxes, which are reconciling items between net income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA. As items that impact net income (loss) are out of the Company’s control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted, the Company is unable to provide such an outlook. Accordingly, reconciliation to net income (loss) outlook for the second quarter and full year 2014 is not available without unreasonable effort.  For a reconciliation of historical non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest comparable GAAP measures, see “Reconciliation of Net Loss to Adjusted EBITDA” included in this press release.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, the future performance of Yelp and its consolidated subsidiaries that are based on the Company’s current expectations, forecasts and assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expected financial results for the second quarter and full year 2014, the future growth in Company revenue and continued investing by the Company in its future growth, the Company’s ability to expand geographically and build Yelp communities internationally and expand its markets and presence in existing markets, the Company’s ability to capture the large local opportunity and its plans regarding product innovation around mobile and new features, geographic expansion, and closing the loop with local businesses. The Company’s actual results could differ materially from those predicted or implied and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: the Company’s short operating history in an evolving industry; the Company’s ability to generate sufficient revenue to achieve or maintain profitability, particularly in light of its significant ongoing sales and marketing expenses; the Company’s ability to successfully manage acquisitions of new businesses, solutions or technologies, including Qype and SeatMe, and to integrate those businesses, solutions or technologies; the Company’s reliance on traffic to its website from search engines like Googleand Bing; the Company’s ability to generate and maintain sufficient high quality content from its users; maintaining a strong brand and managing negative publicity that may arise; maintaining and expanding the Company’s base of advertisers; changes in political, business and economic conditions, including any European or general economic downturn or crisis and any conditions that affect ecommerce growth; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates;  the Company’s ability to deal with the increasingly competitive local search environment; the Company’s need and ability to manage other regulatory, tax and litigation risks as its services are offered in more jurisdictions and applicable laws become more restrictive; the competitive and regulatory environment while the Company continues to expand geographically and introduce new products and as new laws and regulations related to Internet companies come into effect; the Company’s ability to timely upgrade and develop its systems, infrastructure and customer service capabilities. The forward-looking statements in this release do not include the potential impact of any acquisitions or divestitures that may be announced and/or completed after the date hereof.

    More information about factors that could affect the Company’s operating results is included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in the Company’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q at http://www.yelp-ir.com or the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements in this release, which are based on information available to the Company on the date hereof. Yelp assumes no obligation to update such statements. The results we report in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2014 could differ from the preliminary results we have announced in this press release.

    Media Contact Information
    Yelp Press Office
    Vince Sollitto
    (415) 230-6506
    [email protected]

    Investor Relations Contact Information
    Yelp Investor Relations
    Wendy Lim
    (415) 568-3240
    [email protected]

     

    Yelp Inc
    Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
    (In thousands)
    (Unaudited)
    March 31, December 31,
    2014 2013
    Assets
    Current assets:
    Cash and cash equivalents $  399,320 $        389,764
    Accounts receivable, net 21,376 21,317
    Prepaid expenses and other current assets 9,087 5,752
    Total current assets 429,783 416,833
    Property, equipment and software, net 33,298 30,666
    Goodwill 59,635 59,690
    Intangibles, net 4,615 5,235
    Restricted cash 3,655 3,247
    Other assets 2,488 306
    Total assets $  533,474 $        515,977
    Liabilities and stockholders’ equity
    Current liabilities:
    Accounts payable $      1,578 $            3,364
    Accrued liabilities 23,992 19,004
    Deferred revenue 2,184 2,621
    Total current liabilities 27,754 24,989
    Long-term liabilities 5,784 4,505
    Total liabilities 33,538 29,494
    Commitments and contingencies
    Stockholders’ equity
    Common stock – –
    Additional paid-in capital 569,925 553,753
    Accumulated other comprehensive  income 3,102 3,186
    Accumulated deficit (73,091) (70,456)
    Total stockholders’ equity 499,936 486,483
    Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $   533,474 $         515,977

     

     

    Yelp Inc
    Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations
    (In thousands, except per share amounts)
    (Unaudited)
    Three Months Ended
    March 31,
    2014 2013
    Net revenue $ 76,407 $ 46,133
    Cost and expenses
    Cost of revenue (1) 5,077 3,340
    Sales and marketing (1) 45,121 28,194
    Product development (1) 13,982 7,236
    General and administrative (1) 13,170 8,764
    Depreciation and amortization 3,661 2,478
    Restructuring and integration (1) – 675
    Total cost and expenses 81,011 50,687
    Loss from operations (4,604) (4,554)
    Other income (expense), net (2) (201)
    Loss before provision for income taxes (4,606) (4,755)
    Benefit/(Provision) for income taxes 1,971 (44)
    Net loss attributable to common stockholders $ (2,635) $ (4,799)
    Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders:
    Basic $   (0.04) $   (0.08)
    Diluted $   (0.04) $   (0.08)
    Weighted-average shares used to compute net loss per share attributable to common stockholders:
    Basic 71,171 63,733
    Diluted 71,171 63,733
    (1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:
    Three Months Ended
    March 31,
    2014 2013
    Cost of revenue $      150 $        72
    Sales and marketing 3,397 1,988
    Product development 3,042 816
    General and administrative 2,867 1,729
    Restructuring and integration – 555
    Total stock-based compensation $   9,456 $   5,160

     

     

    Yelp Inc
    Reconciliation of Net Loss to Adjusted EBITDA
    (In thousands)
    (Unaudited)
    Three Months Ended
    March 31,
    2014 2013
    Net loss $   (2,635) $   (4,799)
    Provision for income taxes (1,971) 44
    Other income (expense), net 2 201
    Depreciation and amortization 3,661 2,478
    Stock-based compensation* 9,456 4,605
    Restructuring and integration – 675
    Adjusted EBITDA $     8,513 $     3,204

     

    * Stock-based compensation for the three months ended March 31, 2013 excludes approximately $0.6 million of stock-based compensation already included in restructuring and integration costs.

     

     

    Yelp Inc
    Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
    (In thousands)
    (Unaudited)
    Three Months Ended
    March 31,
    2014 2013
    Operating activities
    Net loss $ (2,635) $ (4,799)
     Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net
     cash provided by (used in) operating activities:
    Depreciation and amortization 3,661 2,478
    Provision for doubtful accounts 1,186 551
    Stock-based compensation 9,456 5,160
    Excess tax benefit from share-based award activity (39) –
    Loss on disposal of assets and web-site development costs – 50
    Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
    Accounts receivable (1,249) (1,204)
    Prepaid expenses and other assets (5,928) (1,515)
    Accounts payable and accrued expenses 5,309 (1,176)
    Deferred revenue (438) 281
    Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities 9,323 (174)
    Investing activities
    Purchases of property, equipment and software (4,246) (943)
    Capitalized website and software development costs (1,592) (969)
    Change in restricted cash (397) –
    Cash used in investing activities (6,235) (1,912)
    Financing activities
    Proceeds from exercise of employee stock options 6,735 1,657
    Excess tax benefit from share-based award activity 39 –
    Repurchase of common stock (361) (81)
    Net cash provided by financing activities 6,413 1,576
    Effect of exchange rate changes on cash 55 (116)
    Net increase in cash and cash equivalents 9,556 (626)
    Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 389,764 95,124
    Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $399,320 $94,498

     

    Logo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20050511/SFW134LOGO

    SOURCE Yelp Inc.

    Image via Yelp

  • Talk Examines How Consumers Assess ‘Absolute Value’ With Today’s Buying Tools

    Talk Examines How Consumers Assess ‘Absolute Value’ With Today’s Buying Tools

    Google is sharing a recent talk from Itamar Simonsen and Emanual Rosen on “absolute value”. It examines how consumers asses the value of things they buy using tools of the modern era, such as review sites, price comparison apps, and online experts.

    Included is some discussion about the impact of Yelp on the revenues of restaurants, retailers, and other businesses.

    Google uploaded a bunch of new talks. Also included in the batch is one from RetailMeNot founder and CEO Cotter Cunningham, who tells the story about the company’s success.

    More recent Talks At Google here.

    Image via YouTube

  • Yelp Lets Businesses Highlight Bitcoin Acceptance

    Yelp Lets Businesses Highlight Bitcoin Acceptance

    Yelp announced that it is now showing when businesses accept Bitcoin on business pages. This comes as a new attribute in the “More Business Info” section.

    “We’re constantly thinking about how to make our business attributes more useful for consumers and businesses,” says Justin Overdorrf, business development lead at Yelp.

    Business owners accepting Bitcoin as a payment option can update their payment attributes using the tools at biz.yelp.com.

    Overdorrf adds, “Why does this matter? For those who haven’t heard the buzz about Bitcoin, it’s a new payment technology that allows consumers and businesses to make fast, secure and low-cost digital payments from any Internet-enabled device. Bitcoin also allows for consumers and businesses to transact without having to store sensitive data like a credit card number. Finally, like cash, Bitcoin’s transactions are one-way, so businesses don’t have to worry about chargebacks.”

    Yelp’s current review count is 53 million. The company will release its earnings report on Wednesday, and provide more usage stats.

    Image via Yelp

  • Businesses Frustrated With Yelp Reviews On Yahoo

    Yelp has been in the headlines as business owners have been complaining. You’re shocked, right? This seems to be a narrative that the company just can’t shake.

    One of the big topics this week has been about a deal Yelp made with Yahoo, which saw the search engine replace its own local reviews with Yelp’s. This has not gone over very well with some businesses.

    Is Yahoo better with Yelp’s reviews than with its own? Let us know what you think.

    The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article called “Yelp’s Deal With Yahoo Has Small Businesses Crying Foul”. As it says, businesses owners are complaining that Yahoo has trashed “years of positive feedback from customers” in favor of Yelp’s reviews, which many businesses have already been critical of. Angus Loten reports:

    Colonial Hardwood Flooring of Lexington, Mass., amassed six years of mostly positive feedback on its Yahoo Local listing, says owner Dan Tringale. But several weeks ago, after Yahoo began posting reviews from Yelp, nearly 50 Yahoo reviews disappeared, he says.

    Potential customers searching Yahoo won’t see a 2012 recommendation that Carla Fortmann confirms she and her husband wrote: “This floor is beautiful and it was very carefully done.” Nor will Yahoo searchers find a June 2012 review from Regina Sasso, of Wilmington, Mass., who says Colonial “provided a competitive quote and delivered meticulous service and work.”

    Such praise has been replaced by a single, punctuation-challenged Yelp review, from the “Paul M” screen name, “Respected budget got difficult stain taken care of very attentive and house got an offer opening weekend.”

    This is anecdotal, but it’s certainly not the only complaint. I imagine we’ll be hearing more and more as time goes on.

    Bloomberg TV ran a segment this week including a discussion with both a disgruntled business owner, and a Yelp exec.

    Beverly Ulbrich, is the owner of The Pooch Coach, and says she had about 20 reviews up on Yahoo, and then they just disappeared. All the reviews from Yahoo went away, she said. “We can’t even find or locate them anymore,” she added. They were replaced by reviews from Yelp.

    As Beverly explains, the Yahoo reviews weren’t filtered, and many of them, she says, had 5.5 out of 6 stars. On Yelp, she said, they filter and get rid of good reviews some times “or in my case most of the time”.

    “If you just look at my Yelp reputation it really looks bad,” she says.

    Yelp’s Vincent Sollitto, VP of corporate communications says: “Yelp has to recommend reviews that they find reliable. The reason that there are a number of positive reviews for Beverly’s business that are not being recommended is because in fact ten of them came from the very IP address that was used to claim her business owner’s account, and one of them actually was for a one-star review of a competing business to hers. And so the problem is business owners try to game the system, and websites that don’t try to filter out or verify reliable reviews can get gamed. That’s probably why Yahoo decided to go ahead and use Yelp as the de facto standard for local search.”

    Beverly responds, “First of all, in some cases, clients are at your house, and can be using your IP address to write something. That is possible. IP address isn’t the best judgment. people can be at a cafe and use IP address, you know. I don’t think the location of a person writing the review is relevant. I had one guy, for instance, that is in my five-star-deleted – i’ve had like 34 deleted five-star reviews now – I mean not recommended – and another fourteen that have been deleted. And meanwhile I only have seven five-star reviews up. So that’s a big ratio. We’re talking a fifty to seven ratio here. I had one guy that had to go to the library and open an account in order to be able to write a review for me because he didn’t have a computer service, and he wanted to be able to review me because I did good work with him, and he was very pleased, and Yelp removed his review because it seemed suspicious or whatever, but he’s a real person.”

    She also says nobody would help her get things straightened out, which brings up a good point, and one echoed by the interviewer. He asks if there is a process Yelp has that could help businesses clear things like this up.

    He kind of dances around the question, and is then again asked, “Is there a process by which Beverly can take, and see if some of this can be corrected or modified?”

    “I’m not sure what’s to correct or modify,” he says. “I’m trying to explain that Yelp serves as a recommendation service. We help consumers know what the Yelp community thinks about local businesses. Consumers like that approach, and use it, and that’s what helps them find local businesses. There are certainly other businesses that take other approaches, but we have to make sure that the information on our site is reliable.”

    I guess that’s a no.

    He also doesn’t bother to acknowledge the points Beverly made about cases where people could legitimately be using the same IP addresses, unless Bloomberg cut that part out. That’s where the segment ends.

    Could Yelp improve its communication channel with businesses? Do its reviews make Yahoo local search more reliable? Share your thoughts in the comments.

  • Yelp Launches In Japan, Expands Platform To Spas & Salons

    Continuing its ongoing international expansion, Yelp announced that it has now launched in Japan. This is the company’s 26th country, following a Mexico launch last month.

    Yelp’s efforts in Japan will begin in Toyko and Osaka. The site is available at Yelp.co.jp, or people in Japan can use the mobile app.

    “With over 126 million people, Japan is the tenth most populated country on the planet, and economically speaking, it’s no shrinking cherry blossom,” says Yelp VP of New Markets Miriam Warren.

    Yelp also announced an expansion of the Yelp Platform, initially launched last year for food ordering and delivery. It now supports spas and salons. A select number of them are already utilizing the platform for booking appointments, but Yelp says it will continue to roll out the functionality of the coming weeks.

    Yelp product manager Partha Sundaram writes, “Been dying to try out a Jared Leto-esque ombre or treat your better half to a pamper sesh? Now you can head to Yelp to find just the place, then schedule your appointment directly from a Booker supported spa or salon (like Yelo in New York). Not only can you book directly from your computer or Yelp’s mobile apps, you can choose to save your payment details so you won’t have to enter them again for the billionth time.”

    The company says it will continue to add new categories and partners to the platform so users can “transact directly on Yelp” with more businesses.

    Image via Yelp

  • FTC Has Seen 2,046 Complaints About Yelp In Recent Years

    The FTC disclosed this week that there have been 2,046 complaints filed against Yelp dating from 2008 to March 4th, 2014. While that may seem like a lot, it’s not incredibly shocking given that we see businesses complaining informally about the site pretty much every week.

    Has your experience with Yelp been positive or negative? Let us know in the comments.

    Businesses often vent their frustration in article comments and elsewhere on the Internet, as well as at Yelp’s own events. They often blame the site for major losses in business, and sometimes suggest that the site is holding their positive reviews hostage when they refuse to advertise.

    The FTC’s disclosure was in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Wall Street Journal. They sent reporter Angus Loten the complaints (most of them at least). He writes:

    Most of the complaints are from small businesses that claim to have received unfair or fraudulent reviews, often after turning down a pitch to advertise on the site, according to a separate spreadsheet of complaints to the FTC about Yelp, reviewed exclusively by the Journal. For instance, a business owner in Montclair, N.J., whose name was redacted said: “I was contacted by a Yelp salesperson to advertise, which I declined, and since have only had negative posts on their site.”

    Obviously Yelp has always denied that there is any relationship between advertising and reviews.

    Earlier this year, The Court of Appeals of Virginia ordered Yelp to reveal the names of seven reviewers who left anonymous, negative reviews on a business – Hadeed Carpet – which says the names are critical in pursuing a defamation case against the reviewers over what it claims were false reviews from non-customers. Yelp has reportedly been held in contempt for not revealing the names.

    As Loten reports, the case is headed to the Virginia Supreme Court this month. He writes that the business lost millions in revenue after the negative reviews, and had to get rid of 80 workers and sell six trucks.

    Another interesting stat to come out of the report is that Yelp receives roughly six subpoenas a month, sometimes looking to get names of anonymous users.

    Two months ago, another defamation case in Virginia saw an outcome in which neither party truly won. Ultimately the court decided that the two had defamed each other.

    Earlier this week, we looked at a video Yelp released recently, featuring a montage of media personalities talking about and referencing Yelp:

    They left out the People’s Court episode in which a business owner made claims that Yelp was prioritizing negative reviews against his company over the higher quantity of positive reviews. Yelp, he said, then contacted him, and said that if he advertised, his negative reviews would get filtered out.

    Judge Milian responded, “Wow! I don’t know if what you’re saying is accurate or not, but if it is, it’s pretty outrageous.”

    David Lazarus at the LA Times wrote an article five years ago asking if Yelp is a “shakedown racket for merchants,” saying that restaurant owners were saying it was “unusually aggressive in trying to get businesses to pay hundreds of dollars in monthly “sponsorship” fees to improve their ranking in search results and to move their most positive review to the top of the page.”

    Lazarus wrote another article this week talking about yet another business making those familiar “extortion” claims.

    “Yelp just can’t stop living the thug life,” the article begins.

    None of these accusations have actually been proven so far, but there have been so many for so long, it’s hard to completely brush them off.

    Either way, Yelp continues to push on with impressive financials and statistics.

    Last month, the company put out a video and blog post explaining why businesses should advertise on Yelp. It didn’t mention anything about negative review filtering.

    Do you believe complaints against Yelp are legitimate or is it all nonsense as Yelp suggests? Let us know what you think.

    Image via Yelp (Flickr)

  • A Montage Of Media Personalities Talking About Yelp

    Yelp recently released this montage of its service being talked about and referenced in the media. It includes clips from everything from Ellen to Tosh.0.

    I couldn’t help but notice that The People’s Court was absent from the video:

    Image via YouTube

  • Yelp Introduces The Yelpulus Rift

    Yelp Introduces The Yelpulus Rift

    Remember that Netflix video parodying Amazon’s famous drone video? It looks like Yelp tried to do something similar, making light of Facebook’s Oculus acquisition.

    Yelp says in the video description, “For Yelp’s Hackathon 13, this team of engineers imagined what a virtual reality experience of Yelp Monocle would look like. Not all Hackathon projects have to be based on real, feasible products, as evidenced by this team’s creativity with duct tape and a little video editing skills.”

    If you’re unfamiliar with Yelp Monocle, it’s an augmented reality feature that uses a phone’s GPS to overlay markers on top of businesses on the phone’s camera view.

    Image via YouTube

  • Yelp To Businesses: Want More Customers? Try Our Ads.

    In a push to get more advertisers, Yelp put out a new blog post and video about why businesses should advertise on Yelp.

    Have you advertised on Yelp? Was the experience positive or negative? Are you considering giving it a try? Let us know in the comments.

    Let’s go ahead and get to the big elephant in the room right away. Yelp saves it for the very end of its post, but it seems to be one of the most discussed Yelp topics, so let’s talk about it up front.

    Yelp VP Revenue & Analytics Matt Halprin writes, “So, can a business owner pay to get a better star rating? Absolutely not. We treat advertisers and non-advertisers exactly the same and you’ll find plenty of Yelp advertisers with negative reviews, and plenty of non-advertisers with stellar ratings.”

    As you may know, Yelp is often on the defensive against businesses who claim that the site holds their positive reviews hostage in the review filter. Some of these businesses say Yelp makes their negative reviews more visible when they refuse to pay for advertising.

    Yep, you know the story. Yelp denies it, and denies it, but the accusations don’t seem to ever stop. And typically when we write about the company, we get even more angry business owners slamming the site in the comments. Obviously we can’t verify the legitimacy of any random comment we get, but again, we do get a lot of them.

    Here are a few we got on our article a couple weeks ago:

    “Yelp cares about profits more than the average small business owner. That is irrefutable and evidenced by their unethical actions. It’s 2014 and with the technology we have, there is no excuse for Yelp to filter a legitimate positive review. Yet, this has happened to virtually EVERY business owner I’ve worked with. Yelp does not filter negative reviews… at all. It doesn’t serve them to do so. I’ve worked with a few thousand small business owners and less than 10% are happy with Yelp…”

    …

    “Ditto with my hotel business as well. They hold you hostage by only allowing the negative reviews to stick until you pay for advertise with them. Then they finally let the positive reviews you receive stay up. I wish the government would do an investigation on them.”

    …

    “Yelp hurts small business more than it helps. They will post a negative review from a person with a new account,1 review, no friends, zero activity. If a new review is a 5 star, with a new account- they filter it. We manage online campaigns for small business. We submitted to YELP proof that 2 of our customers reviewers (4 total) used new accounts to write the same 1 star review. One of the reviewers was a competitor and his wife. Same info written days later. All showed up bringing clients rating down to 3 stars. They did nothing. BTW- Their PPC campaigns don’t work and their search capabilities within the site makes no sense. Reality is you have to deal with them.”

    They pretty much go on and on. And as we’ve seen before, these complaints are sometimes brought to the company’s events, and even to TV shows.

    So what is Yelp saying about its ads now?

    “An average of 120 million unique visitors turn to Yelp each month to help them make a spending decision,” says Halprin. “Since these consumers are already searching for a business with which to spend money, Yelp offers local businesses a wide range of advertising options that allow them to get in front of even more of these highly engaged Yelp users. In fact, a study done by The Boston Consulting Group last year found that Yelp advertisers generate average annual revenues of more than $23,000 from Yelp. With the average Yelp advertiser spending $4,200 annually, that’s a pretty impressive potential return on investment.”

    He goes on to talk up the company’s flat-rate subscription bundles, packaged CPC bundles and self-serve CPC ads, as well as the metrics it gives businesses as part of their Business Accounts.

    Here’s the aforementioned video with business owners talking about what they get out of the experience.

    Sold?

    Last week, Yelp expanded into Mexico, its 25th country. Additionally, Yahoo has started including Yelp reviews in its local business search results.

    Do you think Yelp is good for businesses? How about Yelp ads in particular? Share your thoughts.

    Image via Yelp

  • Yelp Expands Into Mexico (Its 25th Country)

    Yelp announced that it has launched in Mexico. Mexicans can now create accounts on Yelp.com.mx. Business owners should go to biz.yelp.com.mx.

    This is Yelp’s 25th country across five continents. Last year, it launched in New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Brazil and Portugal. It supports 14 languages.

    “Mexico is a vibrant mosaic of micheladas, mole, and muralism, just to name a few of its cultural contributions,” says Miriam Warren, Yelp’s VP of New Markets. “Whether you’re looking for a taco fix, a refreshing pulque, or a beautiful alebrije for your home, locals will now be able to find their favorite businesses on Yelp.”

    Yelp’s efforts in Mexico will start with Mexico City, and at 20 million people, the company says it’s already Yelp’s largest city.

    Yelp recently announced that tis number of reviews is up to over 53 million, and average monthly unique visitors were at at 120 million. Local businesses on Yelp total over 67,000.

    During its earnings call, and in its report last month, Yelp stressed that geographic expansion is high on its priority list for 2014.

    Earlier this week, Yelp and Yahoo announced that Yelp business listings are now integrated in to Yahoo’s local search results in the U.S.

    Image via Yelp

  • Yahoo Launches Yelp Integration For Local Search

    We heard last month that Yahoo and Yelp were teaming up to add local business reviews to Yahoo’s local search results. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer reportedly revealed the partnership in an employee meeting. These things never stay inside the company.

    Anyhow, both companies have now announced the partnership and integration. When Yahoo users in the U.S. look up local businesses, they’ll see user reviews, business information, and star ratings from Yelp as well as photos from Yelp, other partners, and the businesses themselves.

    “At Yahoo, we’re always looking to build great partnerships to provide a richer experience for our users,” says Anand Chandrasekaran, Senior Director, Product Management at Yahoo. “That’s why we’re especially fired up to add trusted user content from Yelp, bringing more business listings, more photos, and more reviews to the recently-refreshed Local Search and Yahoo Maps experiences. With information and photos for retail chains, mom and pop shops, spas, doctors and hospitals, restaurants, and more, Yelp is a welcome addition to our roster of local content partners.”

    “With local searches making up about 25% of Yahoo’s search traffic, the demand for reliable local information is high, and we’re excited to make this experience even richer for Yahoo users,” says Mike Ghaffary, Vice President of Business and Corporate Development at Yelp. “Across all categories of local business, from dog groomers and day spas to nightclubs and burger joints, trusted content from Yelp’s vibrant community of locals will help Yahoo users decide where to spend their money.”

    Both companies consider Yelp reviews to be “trusted,” and perhaps they are by many, but it has become clear that there are also quite a few businesses and consumers that don’t exactly trust what they read on the site. This week, we reported on none other than Andrew Zimmern blasting the site and its reviews. We also hear from businesses all the time (see the comments sections of most of our Yelp articles) that they don’t care for Yelp, often saying it hurts them more than helps them. Yelp itself, also continues to deal with the never-ending problem of fake reviews.

    Yelp currently has over 53 million reviews.

    Image via Yelp

  • Yelp Gets Blasted By Business Owners And Celebrity

    Yelp is taking some harsh criticism in the media once again. Its handling of fake reviews is coming under fire, as is its worth to consumers. Business owners are speaking out (as usual), and celebrity chef/TV personality/food writer Andrew Zimmern, who has been critical of Yelp in the past, is calling it “worthless”.

    Do you agree with Zimmern or does Yelp have significant value to consumers and businesses? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Yelp recently announced that it had handed out a new round of consumer alerts – warnings that appear on business pages – calling out businesses for alleged foul Yelp review play. It also renewed alerts on some businesses that had previously received them.

    “We normally remove alerts after 90 days, but we won’t hesitate to renew them if we continue to see suspicious activity,” said Yelp’s Kristen Whisenand on the company blog. “That’s exactly what happened for two businesses this time around. We again found something amiss with two of the locations for Chicago-based nail salon, Azure Nails. And someone was caught red-handed yet again trying to buy reviews for Evergreen.”

    Chicago’s ABC 7 spoke with Azure’s owner Hoang Bui as well as with a Yelp spokesperson, who said Yelp found a “large number of positive reviews” coming from the same IP address, which it considered “a sign of someone trying to game the system and mislead consumers”. The news outlet reports:

    When asked if he or his employees were writing reviews, Bui said “No. We have Wi-Fi here, and I asked my clients to write reviews right here in my business, and my clients use Wi-Fi here.”

    But Yelp says it has additional evidence, including a negative review of a rival salon, from that same IP address.

    Bui has his own allegations. He said he believes Yelp has made negative reviews more visible because he refused to pay for advertising.

    We’ve definitely heard that one before.

    In fact, the subject came up yet again in a report last week from WTOC in Savannah.

    Cathi Denham, the owner of doggie day care and luxury pet hotel Catnip n Biscuits said, “Customers leave reviews when they’re mad at us for something we wouldn’t do their way, and they’re negative reviews. We have some really good reviews on Yelp also, but you’ll never see those because they’re hidden in the filter button to filter out the good ones. It’s just wrong….it will say Yelp doesn’t recommend these reviews, but that’s where all our good reviews are. There’s no good reviews on the front page.”

    She said that her rating dropped, and that is when Yelp began soliciting her to advertise.

    “They don’t say it, but I know people that do advertise with Yelp that their negative reviews then disappear, and only the positive reviews show up,” she said.

    Yeah, we’ve heard this story over and over again. Yelp denies that this happens, and calls such accusations “conspiracy theories” and the result of the Woozle effect. Yet the accusations keep coming from business owner after business owner.

    Zimmern didn’t really get into any of that specifically, but says he finds Yelp and products like it to be “increasingly worthless” as a consumer. He was critical of Yelp’s ability to maintain legitimate content.

    He told Eater, “Do I think that there’s some sort of satanic conspiracy going on over there or some covert plan to compensate people? No, I don’t. Do I think that there are some people who have taken a rogue position and easily tried to stretch boundaries and stuff? Yes, I do. That’s what happens with organizations that are horizontal and not vertical. In today’s world, especially the digital world, especially with a product like Yelp, the organization is horizontal and not vertical. There are always people trying to take advantage of stuff like this, so I imagine, sure, I don’t think Yelp can do a lot about how people interact with this forum.”

    “It is their responsibility, and policing it is just a hard job,” he added. “That’s why I’m not giving them a pass. They’re probably scrambling to figure this shit out as much as anyone. I will tell you flat out that I continually find Yelp and products like it to be increasingly worthless to me as a consumer. That’s really where I feel strongest about it.”

    He said later in the interview, “The last thing I want to do is utilize a service where millions of people are chiming in, and the results are tainted. Either it’s people who don’t know what they’re talking about shouting over the people who do … Look. There’s lots of people on Yelp whose opinions I would love to have, but you know what, I can’t use on Yelp, because Yelp to me is worthless.”

    On Yelp’s effects on businesses, he told Eater, “Yelp, in a very perverse way, I may not like them or recommend them, but they have hit a core amongst viewers and they can move the needle. A good review in the New York Times used to be worth two million dollars. A good review on Yelp, they’ve put some sort of number attached to that. God bless them. It helps them sell ads, I’m sure. I think it’s a defective mechanism. It’s very, very popular. There’s tens of millions of people on that site.”

    Either way, Yelp is encouraging people to leave a lot more reviews, and to say more in the reviews they do leave.

    Fast Company interviewed Yelp Consumer and Mobile Products Vice President Eric Singley, who said the company has “always emphasized quality over quantity.”

    But at the end of the year, Yelp sang the praises of its user who had written the most reviews during 2013. He wrote 1,712, which is roughly five a day. At that point, he had written about 7,000 of the site’s 47 million reviews.

    Last year, Yelp finally made it so that users of its mobile apps can leave reviews, which has greatly contributed to quantity. Yelp released its Q4 and full year 2013 financials last month, and revealed that during the quarter, it had approximately 53 million mobile unique visitors and 30% of new reviews were contributed through mobile devices.

    Yelp is actively encouraging higher quality with these reviews, however. Or at least higher word count. Singley pointed out to Fast Company for those who try to leave really short reviews, the app tells them, “This review is shorter than most.” They consider this “a nudge in the right direction.”

    Do you think Yelp is doing a good job of maintaining quality content throughout its site? Are businesses being treated fairly? Is the Yelp experience valuable to consumers? Tell us what you think.

    Image via Facebook

  • Yelp Slaps Consumer Alerts On More Pages, Renews Them On Others

    Yelp announced on Friday that it has launched a new round of Consumer Alerts for “a handful of businesses” in its latest efforts to combat the ongoing problem of fake reviews.

    Do you think the fake review problem has gotten better since Yelp started posting Consumer Alerts? Let us know in the comments.

    Yelp first revealed the Consumer Alerts program in the fall of 2012. It’s a tool designed to fight fake reviews by showing warnings to users on the pages of businesses who have been found to pay for reviews. Users are greeted with a big notice like so:

    Yelp doesn’t kick the business out of its service, but the embarrassing warning appears on the business listing for three months. Yelp has hoped that this would serve as a deterrent, but last month, the company said it had issued 285 of the alerts with more to come.

    More indeed. Yelp’s Kristen Whisenand writes:

    We normally remove alerts after 90 days, but we won’t hesitate to renew them if we continue to see suspicious activity. That’s exactly what happened for two businesses this time around. We again found something amiss with two of the locations for Chicago-based nail salon, Azure Nails. And someone was caught red-handed yet again trying to buy reviews for Evergreen Carpet Cleaning in Los Angeles.

    This type of activity not only hurts consumers, but also honest businesses who play by the rules. Yelp’s main line of defense is our automated recommendation software which works behind the scenes at all times to recommend reliable and useful reviews. It’s unfortunate that some people are so set on gaming the system (and misleading consumers) that the additional step of posting Consumer Alerts is necessary. That said, we take our responsibility of providing trusted information very seriously, and we’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that Yelp remains helpful to consumers.

    She shares an ad the company found:

    Just how much Yelp’s Consumer Alerts are really deterring businesses from writing and acquiring fake reviews remains a mystery. Clearly’ they’re not deterring everyone, including businesses that have already been on the receiving end of the alerts.

    Earlier this year, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman talked about how the company conducts “sting operations,” where Yelpers pose as users willing to write paid reviews. He said at the time that this was only happening in the U.S. so far, but that the operations would expand into Europe.

    “It has been incredibly successful in that we have been able to catch businesses red handed,” Stoppleman said.

    Still, you have to wonder how many aren’t being caught.

    Yelp has also utilized the legal system to go after paid reviews. Last year, the company sued the site BuyYelpReview.com, and more recently Yelp sued a guy for planting fake reviews on his business page.

    A Harvard Business School study last year suggested that 16% of Yelp restaurant reviews are potentially fake, a figure Yelp says is misleading, as it used reviews Yelp identified as suspicious (not “fake”) to run its analysis.

    The company did say last year that the study’s findings “shouldn’t come as a complete surprise,” and “as consumers increasingly turn to online reviews to find a local business, the incentive to artificially improve one’s reputation also increases, but neither should the fact that Yelp has been on guard against these very same reviews from our earliest days.”

    Last fall, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that nineteen companies had agreed to stop writing fake Yelp reviews and pay over $350,000 of fines.

    Yelp said at the time that it would love to work with law enforcement officials in other states to crack down on the “unethical practice” of fake review writing.

    Last month, Yelp posted its financials for the fourth quarter and full year 2013. Cuumlative reviews grew 47% from the same time the previous year to 53 million, while average unique monthly visitors grew 39% to 120 million. Active local business accounts grew 69%.

    Is the fake review problem getting better? Can users rely on the content they find on Yelp? Share your thoughts.

    Images via Yelp

  • Yelp CEO Contributes $23K To Catch Whoever Has Been Trying To Poison San Francisco’s Dogs With Meatballs

    Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman is really looking to make a difference this week.

    Not only did he write an open letter to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer urging her to veto SB 1062, which would have allowed businesses to discriminate against gay people (eventually she did veto it), but he is also contributing to a $25,000 reward for information that would help catch the person who has been leaving poisoned meatballs for pets in San Francisco.

    The Animal Legal Defense Fund writes (via NBC Bay Area):

    Poisoned meatballs have been found in San Francisco again! The Animal Legal Defense Fund, SFDOG, and Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator(s) of the poisoned meatballs in the Bay Area. On February 22, a San Francisco animal control officer found 35 meatballs that would be deadly to unsuspecting dogs and cats who came for a nibble. The poisoned meatballs were scattered through a Twin Peaks neighborhood where a similar incident occurred last year, hidden in carports, stairwells, along curbs, and in bushes. Along with funds from ALDF and SFDOG, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman has generously pledged the bulk of the reward—contributing $23,000—to help track down the perpetrator(s) responsible.

    Last year, at least two dogs were killed by very similar meatballs, and the culprit was never caught. Animal Care and Control says there’s a “high probability” the same person or people are responsible for the latest wave of meatballs.

    Stoppelman is an apparent dog lover. In addition to his reddit AMA proof picture (seen at top), he posed with his dog for a couple shots for a San Francisco Chronicle profile of him in 2012.

    Images via Jeremy Stoppelman, Twitter, Animal Legal Defense Fund

  • Yelp CEO Pens Letter To Jan Brewer Urging Veto Of SB 1062

    Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman has written an open letter to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, which was just posted to the company’s blog. Stoppelman urges Brewer to veto SB 1062, the controversial bill that would allow businesses in the state to refuse service to anyone based on religious freedom.

    Here’s the letter in its entirety:

    Dear Governor Brewer:

    I write to express my concern about SB 1062 and to respectfully request that you veto this legislation.

    At the heart of Yelp’s mission is giving consumers the ability to find great local businesses.

    Protecting the consumer has been – and will continue to be – our main priority. I believe that every consumer has a right to be served by a business without fear of discrimination. The language of this proposed law would set a dangerous precedent that would allow businesses in Arizona to discriminate against consumers. This is not only wrong, but taints the otherwise stellar reputation of Arizona as a state that excels in attracting new businesses.

    SB 1062 would serve to create an environment where consumers would not know how they would be treated – or whether they would even be served – when they patronize a business. This bill goes against the rule that every great business subscribes to, which is that the customer is always right. It will not only be bad for customers, but also bad for local business in the state. I also believe that it would be in consumers’ interests to be made aware of businesses within the state that did engage in discriminatory behavior. Since early 2010, Yelp has hired over 650 employees in Arizona. Over the next few years, we hope to hire hundreds more. It would be unconscionable for the state to encourage discrimination against any of them.

    When Yelp originally decided to open an office in Arizona it did so because we believed that the state provided a welcoming business environment. I hope that you will continue to nurture such an environment in the state by vetoing SB 1062.

    Sincerely,

    Jeremy Stoppelman
    CEO, Yelp

    Located in Scottsdale, Yelp announced the opening of its third office four years ago.

    “Scottsdale and the greater Phoenix area have a vibrant and growing Yelp community,” said Stoppelman at the time. “The region is also a great place to locate a technology business, having a strong infrastructure and an educated talent pool of potential employees. We are excited to make Scottsdale home to our third Yelp office and the hundreds of future Yelp employees who will live, work and play in this great area.”

    “Yelp’s decision to grow and expand here showcases why Arizona is the ideal base for companies who need to reach out to the world,” said Donald Cardon, Director of the Arizona Department of Commerce in the announcement. “They now join the growing number of companies ranging from Fortune 500 companies to high-techs to start-ups who enjoy a dynamic business climate, wonderful quality of life and talented workforce.”

    Here’s a look at the real-time Twitter conversation around the bill:


    Image via Jeremy Stoppelman, Twitter