Local review and search service Yelp says its growth is accelerating, despite increased competitive pressure from Google, Groupon, LivingSocial and others.
Yelp CFO Vlado Herman discussed the company's business strategy, revenue model and competitive landscape with investors at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco. He revealed that the website garnered 45 million visitors in January and just hit 16 million reviews in the last week. That's up from 39 million users in November and 15 million reviews at the end of 2010. While Yelp users wrote 6 million reviews in 2010, the company is on track for 9 million in 2011.
Restaurant reviews are still the plurality of Yelp's reviews, but not by much. Twenty-five percent of reviews are for restaurants, but another 25% are in the shopping category (which includes everything from the local flower shop to J.C. Penney). Local entertainment, services and health and beauty each constitute 10% of the platform's reviews as well.
Herman also explained Yelp's three key revenue models: local subscriptions, its international advertising product and its daily deals product, which it rolled out in Q3 and Q4 last year. Its local subscriptions product is still the company's primary revenue driver, generating $300 to $1,000 in revenue per business per month. Its advertising business is also strong, Herman says, because of its young, locally-targeted demographic.