Yelp

Jia Ling Li, Jingwen Li, Eric Almazan, Melissa Ramirez & Stephen Burt

Background
American Company that

operates as an online urban guide/business review site.

Based in San Francisco, CA

Found by Jeremy Stoppelman

and Russel Simmons in 2004

Industry: Business ratings and

reviews

 2005: - Expanded to New York City, Chicago, and Boston markets. - Formed a group of super users called The Yelp Elite, reviewers grew from

Timeline 2006: Benchmark capital made a $10 million investment

12,000 to 100,000
2008: $15 million investment from DAG ventures

2007: The website had one million user-submitted reviews of local business.

2009: Google entered into negotiations with Yelp Inc. to acquire the

company, but the two parties failed to reach an agreement

2010: Increased its sales staff using $100 million in venture capital obtained

from Elevation Partners

2011: Began a service called Yelp Deals in April 2012: - The companys stock began public trading on the New York Stock

Exchange at a share price of $15 and the company was valuated at $898 million

- Made an agreement to acquire its largest European rival, Qype, for $50

-Yelp leading review site in the US- Huge barrier to competition due to sheer amount of reviews

Business Strategy

-80% local advertising, 15% brand advertising, 5% affiliate revenue -Majority of yelp employees are in sales.

-how yelp gives value to customers

-Key competitors - Google+Local, Tripadvisor, Zagat, Citysearch, Yahoo Local, YellowPages.com, aroundme/foursquare -Competitive advantage

-Global Strategy- Entering international markets- little overhead- easily able to enter new markets-Focus on sales/marketing-17 countries
-Offers enhanced profiles to SMBs at average cost of $4200 annually -Network effect- Yelps business depends on more people writing and viewing reviews

-Need for sales. 800+ employees with over 600 in sales

-Partnerships with Apple and seamless ordering service -Performance & financial highlights

Frameworks

-AFI Strategy Framework -5 Forces Model -VRIO Framework -SCP model

-Pestel

AFI Framework

5 Forces Model

VRIO Framework
Valuable:

- Complaints regarding fake reviews from

customers and businesses

- Filed lawsuits against unfair business

practice
Rare - Competitors offers the similar services Cost to Intimidate - Low cost advertisement - Pay commission to every advertisement

sold to salesperson

Organize to capture value - Spending on R&D to develop an effective way to solve non profitable problem

SCP Framework

Recommendations

-Viral Video Collaboration Vine? -Mobile monetization - Inapp purchases-build on the food ordering service

-Diversify income