YELP Business Summary

Yelp Inc. operates a multi-sided local commerce platform that generates the vast majority of its revenue through advertising, which accounted for approximately 96% of its $1.46 billion record net revenue in 2025. The company’s business is primarily divided into two advertising segments: Services (including home and auto services), which grew 8% to $948 million in 2025, and Restaurants, Retail & Other (RR&O), which contributed $444 million. Beyond advertising, Yelp monetizes through transaction fees, SaaS subscriptions for business tools like Yelp Reservations and Waitlist, and data licensing, a category that accelerated 17% year-over-year following a 2026 agreement with OpenAI to power AI-driven local discovery. Yelp competes directly with Google (Search and Maps), TripAdvisor, Angi, and Meta Platforms; while it holds a smaller overall market share than Google, Yelp maintains a high-intent niche by leveraging its database of over 330 million cumulative reviews and its recent pivot toward AI-integrated lead management via the 2026 acquisition of Hatch. Yelp was co-founded in 2004 by Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons, both former members of the "PayPal Mafia." Stoppelman continues to lead the company as CEO, bringing a pedigree from PayPal (VP of Engineering) and Harvard Business School. The executive team includes CFO David Schwarzbach, who previously held leadership roles at Optimizely and eBay, and CTO Sam Eaton, who oversees the company's aggressive AI transformation. The board of directors is chaired by Diane Irvine (former CEO of Blue Nile) and features notable industry veterans including Fred Anderson, the former CFO of Apple and co-founder of NextEquity Partners, and Logan Green, the co-founder and former CEO of Lyft, who joined the board in late 2025. This leadership group is currently focused on transitioning Yelp from a traditional review site into a conversational, action-oriented AI platform for local services.