51–60 of 63 posts
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But you're forgetting that this time it's different. With social networks, you don't need a business model. Because of the network effects, and increasing number of mobile devices, they will be able to leverage the cloud and produce real-time location-based analytics. So, as you see, Yelp doesn't require a conventional business model to have a multi-billion dollar valuation.
I honestly can't tell if you're being serious or sarcastic.
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But you're forgetting that this time it's different. With social networks, you don't need a business model. Because of the network effects, and increasing number of mobile devices, they will be able to leverage the cloud and produce real-time location-based analytics. So, as you see, Yelp doesn't require a conventional business model to have a multi-billion dollar valuation.
I think I count 15 buzzwords
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I honestly can't tell if you're being serious or sarcastic.
Seriously? You can't tell?
I had a friend that used to do ironic yelp reviews. His review of the hot dogs at the 7-11 by his house were priceless.
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It makes no sense to shoot for profitability when you are growing rapidly. Yelp has only just started expanding outside the US. It's cash is much better spent on growth than sitting in the bank.
How do you know that your rapid growth isn't a result of your service being unprofitable? Wasn't that the lesson that we were supposed to learn with pets.com and kozmo? Also I believe that profitability and rapid growth are not mutually exclusive. I understand the theory of operating at a loss, but it leaves very little room for uncertainty in the marketplace. If you have new competition, capital dries up, or you mak…
Generally, if you have a business where there is a significant growth opportunity / market opportunity, the right strategy is to run at an accounting loss to grow faster. What matters is the cash situation, not the accrual accounting situation (and they are not that closely tied to each other.) Growing slower so that you show an accounting profit would be the wrong thing to do and the market would not consider it a positive indicator for a company coming to IPO.
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Amazon did the same thing, if you remember their end of Q3 statement -- instead of profit, they re-invested in themselves (probably Kindle related purchases to have a bigger Q4).
That's not a good analogy. Amazon made a profit, they just chose to reinvest it in infrastructure. The above mentioned companies are still losing money (I believe). True, it can be a good decision for a starup to optimize for market share first, profitability second. But even an IPO only gives you so much runway. Eventually you need to start turning a profit. And the longer you emphasize market over profit, the bigge…
Yelp seems like another business that would have worked much better for the users as a nonprofit ala craigslist (I know craigslist isn't a nonprofit but it's more or less run as one.) See the sporadic bursts of drama about businesses being forced to buy ads on yelp to influence reviews [1:3]. You have to wonder what they're going to do to get enough revenue to support their desired $1-$2B valuation. [1] http://www.cb…
For example, our salon has 89 total reviews. 18 are public, 71 are 'filtered' (hidden): http://www.yelp.com/biz/bloom-beauty-lounge-new-york
A competitor in our area has 81 total reviews. 71 are public, 10 are filtered: http://www.yelp.com/biz/kiwa-salon-new-york
All of our reviews are from legitimate customers and we've reached out to Yelp to try to understand their algorithm. They assure us that everything is 'proprietary' and they 'cannot divulge secret information.'
We previously showed up to 36 positive reviews at one time, at which point we were seeing huge foot-traffic from yelp. Since then it has more or less dropped off.
Yelp seems like another business that would have worked much better for the users as a nonprofit ala craigslist (I know craigslist isn't a nonprofit but it's more or less run as one.) See the sporadic bursts of drama about businesses being forced to buy ads on yelp to influence reviews [1:3]. You have to wonder what they're going to do to get enough revenue to support their desired $1-$2B valuation. [1] http://www.cb…
As a small business, we have never been extorted directly (noone has said 'we will bring your private reviews public'), but the percentage of filtered reviews across different small businesses is RIDICULOUS. For example, our salon has 89 total reviews. 18 are public, 71 are 'filtered' (hidden): http://www.yelp.com/biz/bloom-beauty-lounge-new-york A competitor in our area has 81 total reviews. 71 are public, 10 are fi…
You need to get more Yelpers to your business. If they're elite, that's even better. You obviously have a good product because you have 4.5 stars, so it's just a matter if getting those elites to your place.
I have friend who works hard to cater to the elite Yelpers. He thinks that's the key to his success. I don't know if it does get him more foot traffic though. Anyway, It was a lot of hard work, even though he had a great product. He finally got his place to the magical 4.5 star mark with over 125 unfiltered reviews.
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You mean, like how every other website on the planet is dependent on Google? Yes, that is true. Just like Ford/Toyota/etc are dependent on BP/Exxon/etc.
No, I think the gp is referencing the fact that 75 (seriously, 75!!!) percent of yelps traffic comes in from google [1]. You have to view that as basically a failure of the company and the brand. Instead of going to yelp for a review, people just search in google. This also obviously leaves them enormously exposed to changes in Google's algorithms, whether intended to affect yelp or not. (Cue the google employees wit…
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This isn't really fair. In Chrome DNS has practically been replaced by google search, and it's great. Instead of typing yelp.com (or was it yelp.net? www.yelp.biz? http://www.yelp.info? ) I can just type "yelp" and get where I'm going without having to remember the exact url and without getting an annoying error page if I make a typo. I suspect for many users even in other browsers the search box gets much more use t…
Long tail search traffic related to local businesses is the key here, not people attempting to navigate to Yelp through Google.