Yelp Files For $100 Million IPO
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Yelp Files For $100 Million IPO
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Re: Yelp Files For $100 Million IPO
#2they are too dependent on Google, which is why they were silly to walk away from their offer.
Re: Yelp Files For $100 Million IPO
#3Does this mean self-absorbed hipsters cum wannabe food critics are worth something? The end is near.
Yelp does a great service though. But half the reviewers are just intolerable attention whores. Found this hilarious explication: http://www.freddiew.com/2009/05/22/yelp-is-great-i-just-hate...
The other sites, like City Search and Google reviews, don't attract this element, probably because they don't allow for elaborate "profiles" and don't cultivate a "community."
Re: Yelp Files For $100 Million IPO
#4they are too dependent on Google, which is why they were silly to walk away from their offer.
I love how everyone becomes armchair experts on the decisions tech companies made when they try to IPO.
Re: Yelp Files For $100 Million IPO
#5they are too dependent on Google, which is why they were silly to walk away from their offer.
google was offering much less than what Microsoft was bringing to the table ($700M) - and they turned that down too. I think if Google up their bid (at least trying to match Microsoft's) Yelp might have gone for it just because it was Google. http://news.accuracast.com/internet-7471/yelp-turned-down-mi...
I think Google should have just paid more and buy Yelp rather than Zagat.
Re: Yelp Files For $100 Million IPO
#6$100 million is less than I would have expected.
Re: Yelp Files For $100 Million IPO
#7they are too dependent on Google, which is why they were silly to walk away from their offer.
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.
Re: Yelp Files For $100 Million IPO
#8So I glanced through the S-1 real quick. They want to raise $100 million, and so far this year their revenue is about $55 million?
Those numbers seem off to me.
Also they are only pulling in 50 odd million a year? Seems really low.
Did anyone else have to put in a CAPTCHA in the S-1 to read the potential negatives???
Re: Yelp Files For $100 Million IPO
#9they are too dependent on Google, which is why they were silly to walk away from their offer.
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.
That analogy doesn't really work. If BP or Exxon refuses to support Ford's vehicle, there are other people to supply the fuel. If Google drops Yelp's ranking, there is no other search engine who is going to fulfill that traffic source that was just yanked from Yelp.
But yes, I agree that it's a problem that most websites face, not just Yelp.
Re: Yelp Files For $100 Million IPO
#10they are too dependent on Google, which is why they were silly to walk away from their offer.
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 with their usual church and state / separation of search from other product lines story. Sorry, not buying it. And even if it's true now, some day a beancounter will win and it won't be.)
There are lots of companies that are far more of a destination than yelp -- the obvious contrast is facebook. I'd bet very little of their traffic is google search driven. Weaning themselves from dependence on Google should be one of the top goals for any web company.
[1] http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/21/stoppelman-75-of-yelps-traf...