Consumer Social Portals & Search · Publisher & Media Owner · B2C Consumer App / Platform
Yelp
Local discovery and review platform monetised through business advertising.
Available information varies by company and source.
Profile record updated:
Company facts
- Official name
- Yelp Inc.
- Entity type
- COMPANY
- Founded
- 2004
- Headquarters
- 140 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California 94105
- Company size
- >5,000
- Market cluster / sector
- Consumer Social Portals & Search
- Market role
- Publisher & Media Owner · B2C Consumer App / Platform
- Ticker
- YELP
- Official website
- yelp.com
What Yelp does
Yelp runs a two-sided platform. On one side, it aggregates consumer demand through local search, reviews and business discovery content. On the other, it sells businesses paid visibility, advertising placements and page management tools that help them capture that demand. Value is created by matching high-intent users with local merchants and brands, then monetising access to that intent through ad budgets, promotional placements and business-facing software features.
Category differentiation
This is the US public company operating the Yelp local reviews and advertising platform, not a generic review widget, restaurant booking service or agency. It competes in local discovery and advertising rather than enterprise review-management software alone.
Strategic context
AI-supported assessment from the existing company research; distinguish interpretation from sourced facts.
Yelp Inc. operates a consumer local discovery platform centred on business listings, user reviews, ratings and photos, primarily accessed through its website and mobile app. It attracts consumers searching for local businesses such as restaurants, healthcare providers and home services, then monetises that audience by selling advertising and visibility products to local businesses, multi-location operators and larger brands. Alongside its consumer platform, Yelp provides a business-facing interface that lets merchants manage listings, respond to reviews, track engagement and purchase advertising. Its revenue model is primarily advertising-led, with self-serve local ads, broader brand advertising solutions, profile enhancement and lead-generation style business tools all contributing to monetisation.
Company news briefing
Briefing updated:
Yelp has advanced its AI capabilities by integrating OpenAI’s GPT-Live-1 into Yelp Host and Hatch to enable simultaneous, natural voice interactions for local businesses. Additionally, Yelp has been incorporated as a key third-party service provider within Meta's consumer-facing AI agent platform, Hatch. These developments complement Yelp's ongoing licensing agreement with OpenAI, reinforcing its strategic positioning as a core local discovery and data layer across emerging agentic interfaces.
Business model & monetisation
Yelp primarily monetises through advertising sold to businesses. This includes self-serve local ads with flexible daily budgets, sponsored placements within search and business pages, and larger brand campaigns using display, native and video formats. Additional monetisation comes from enhanced business profile features, business management tools, lead-related services and transaction or partner-linked revenue tied to bookings or service initiation on the platform.
- Local business advertising
- Self-serve ad budgets and sponsored placements
- National and multi-location brand advertising
- Display, native and video campaign sales
- Business page enhancements and management tools
- Software subscription or premium feature fees
- Lead or transaction-related partner revenue
- Referral, transaction or partner take-rate
Products & capabilities
No products with linked sources are available in this view.
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Competitors & alternatives
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Side-by-side comparisons
Recent recorded signals
Dates refer to the source publication. Older entries are historical context, not evidence of a new event.
TikTok Launches 'Must Eat' Restaurant Guide Feature
Social Platforms · Recorded impact score: 3/5
TikTok introduced a new feature called 'Must Eat' on Wednesday, a community-driven restaurant guide that aggregates recommendations from over 40 million posts and comments. The feature allows users to browse restaurants by city, filter by cuisine, price, rating, and location, and is divided into 'Everyday Eats' and 'Elevated Dining' categories. Select restaurants can be booked directly through OpenTable. The launch is initially in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, accessible via the search bar, Local feed, restaurant pages, and location links on videos. This move intensifies competition with Yelp and Google Maps by leveraging TikTok's strength in user-generated content and social recommendations.
- TikTok launched 'Must Eat' on October 28, 2026.
- The feature aggregates recommendations from over 40 million posts and comments.
Yelp launches AI voice agent 'Check for Me' for restaurant wait times
Product Launch · Recorded impact score: 2/5
Yelp is introducing 'Check for Me', a new feature that uses an AI voice agent to call restaurants on behalf of users to check wait times. The feature is available on restaurant pages in the Yelp app, where users can enter their party size and phone number. The agent then calls the restaurant and sends the results via text message. This follows the trend of personal assistants like Instinct, Fo, and Muse enabling users to call businesses for customer support. In addition, Yelp is updating its AI assistant with an OpenTable integration for booking, better personalization, chat history, custom reminders, and a new lists feature with 'Been Here' and 'Want to Go' lists. The company is also launching 'Smart Lead Reply', a paid product for business owners at $30 per month, which uses AI to reply to customers and qualify leads.
- Yelp launches 'Check for Me' feature that uses an AI voice agent to call restaurants and check wait times.
- Users enter party size and phone number; the agent texts them the results.
Yelp and Hatch advance voice AI for restaurants and service pros with OpenAI’s GPT-Live-1
Recorded impact score: 4/5
We’ve integrated OpenAI’s GPT-Live-1 into Yelp Host, our voice AI solution for restaurants and Hatch, an AI communication platform for service businesses. Yelp Host and Hatch are among the first solutions to deploy GPT-Live-1, OpenAI’s latest voice model that can listen and respond simultaneously, allowing overlapping speech for more natural conversations.
Affiliate News Roundup: YouTube Shopping, OpenAI–Yelp Deal
Affiliate & Performance Marketing · Recorded impact score: 4/5
This August 17, 2026 roundup summarizes key affiliate and creator-economy developments: Awin published the 'Influencing Retail 2026' report highlighting trust over raw reach; YouTube launched its Shopping Affiliate program in the UK (allowing channels from 500 subscribers to tag products, partnering with Awin and retailers like Boots, M&S, Next, Etsy); OpenAI signed a licensing deal with Yelp to feed verified local reviews and business data into ChatGPT answers; and WSJ reports a rise of AI-generated product videos on TikTok Shop, prompting some brands (e.g., SharkNinja) to restrict AI content. The post also links to resources on affiliate fraud prevention, EU AI Act transparency rules, and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
- Awin published a trend report titled 'Influencing Retail 2026' about trust and purchase decisions.
- YouTube expanded its Shopping Affiliate program to the UK, enabling channels with 500+ subscribers to tag partner products in videos, Shorts and livestreams and integrating tracking in YouTube Studio.
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Questions about Yelp
What is Yelp?
Yelp is a local discovery platform where consumers find businesses using reviews, ratings, photos and listings, while businesses use paid tools to improve visibility and attract customers.
Who uses Yelp?
Consumers use Yelp to research local businesses, while local SMBs, service providers, multi-location operators and brands use Yelp's business tools and advertising products.
How does Yelp make money?
Yelp makes money mainly by selling advertising and promoted visibility to businesses, with additional revenue from premium business features and some transaction or partner-linked services.
Sources & coverage
This profile uses public, official and technically observable information. Missing information does not prove that a product or relationship does not exist. The list below does not imply that every profile statement has been verified.
20 publicly documented primary sources and citations linked across the market graph.
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