Yelp’s announced their quarterly earnings this week, and it showed both customer and earnings growth. The overall health of the company sent their stocks up 6% after the announcement. A recent acquisition helped the growth, but that wasn’t all that pushed Yelp over the top.
A recent acquisition of German company Qype added about 2,200 new accounts, but Yelp also experienced a surge in grass-roots growth. The amount of businesses on Yelp rose 69% to 67,200. According to Google analytics, Yelp’s unique visitor count was around 120 million monthly. Yelp says almost half — 53 million — were mobile users.
About 75% of Yelp’s revenue comes from local advertising, so a surge in local businesses only serves that end. The company expects earnings for the current quarter to be around $73.5-74.5 million, above the $73.3 million analysts predicted. Though they had impressive growth overall, Yelp sustained a net loss of $2.1 million.
Year-over-year, Yelp has trimmed their loss by over half. This time last year, Yelp reported a loss of $5.3 million, which was 8 cents per share. It helps when your revenue jumps 72% to $70.7 million, though.
As Yelp continues their turnaround, others like Google are nipping at their heels. Google’s acquisition of Zagat, as well as their ‘City Experts’ program, hope to bridge the gap. Google hasn’t said how well the program is doing, but they offer incentives to top reviewers, something Yelp doesn’t do.
VIA: Reuters
