Yelp.com - $5 submissions your thoughts.
 

Or anyone else's.
Really how long until they get a major buy out?
What do you think of their business model, mixing yellow pages with web 2.0 user generated content and then asking business owners if they want to advertise after they have been "yelped".

From what I can tell it looks like it came from some of the people that left paypal when ebay bought them out, and then a few large tech investors. They also seem to be growing traffic wise quit a bit and the number of users/reviewers seems huge. Oddly though I see no checks an balances for business sabotage's either though.

Well anyways, whats everyone's thoughts?

Bump ze Bump

you have to put a link, most of us are too lazy to type in the URL

http://www.yelp.com

Hey ASM

Yelp.com has tons of great content re restaurants and, more recently, nightlife/clubbing/afterhours listings. I'm sure they probably started by having some staffers "seed" the site (we've done these before for different sites :)) but let the community take over the content generation.

It seems to be getting a lot of traction since its city coverage is spreading pretty fast.

I wouldn't be surprised to read an entry at TECH CRUNCH http://www.techcrunch.com/ announcing that Yelp's been sold. There are however, some challenges: maintaining the speed and depth of coverage of cities and keeping it's user base motivated in supplying free content to the site. With that said, it's profile system, ease of use, and personality-driven features make it a good Web 2.0 iteration of the old review site model.

The business model is great. My input was based on their content strategy.

Here's a free idea to those who want to run with it: why not a MICRONICHE version of their business model?

Ie., sites tailored to college students, lawyers, dentists, CPAs, etc.

microniche = more targeted ads = more elusive audience = higher ad rates for lower traffic :D

Ya. I had this idea years ago but had no idea how to scale it. They did a great job.

The more I explore it the more it surprises me and I notice odd little quirks. For one when I typed in my own city into the search it did have several hundred listings even though it is not a featured or listed city.

Also seems that assorted users are not only developing a large fan base but there seems to be a lot of private parties being held to attract certain reviewers in more competitive markets. Yes businesses are actually trying to get reviewers and certain ones at that.

It also apparently sniffs out any other people using the service that are your friends already by accessing your "free email service" one time and looking for others email addresses. Yahoo, MSN, Google and the like all represented.

Then there are ego boosts when other users can compliment your reviews, though I can not see a public snubbing list. Just the ability to flag a review. Also the site takes no personal liability with the reviews. That part does scare me as a business owner though. I could only imagine how a competitor could enlist a few people and "anti yelp" you with negative reviews and you as the business owner would have no real recourse unless the reviewers themselves wanted to take down their negative reviews.

This site though does seem to be taking a good run at going after that all so elusive "yellow pages" advertising core, who spend shit loads in advertising costs with every issue.

Lastly I think if this really takes off it could be the "anti brand". Typically many nationwide chains or brands often rest securely on their brands. You know you will get the same thing at every location in every city. Now small local establishments can go after those people again. With PDA's, net able phones and all that and they appear to be growing in usage. It would be easy to turn to such a site, find what your in the mood for, get good local reviews, and bypass the "safe" chains.

It's a good site. I bet it will sell for 9 figures within a year.