Yelp has hired Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to lead its initial public offering, The New York Times reports, and the move could happen in early 2012 and it is expected that the company will be valued up to $2 billion. I’m not sure if this would have been possible without the iPhone and the rise of smartphones.
It’s not just me saying that, as Yelp’s CEO has said its iPhone app fundamentally changed its business. Before the app, Yelp had a strong online following and was a great source of user-generated reviews but much of that traffic would be coming from Google. Choosing the download the iPhone app provides a stronger Yelp experience and it cuts out many of the middlemen from Yelp and its users.
As it marches on to its IPO, expect Yelp’s mobile apps and services to play a much-larger role. I’m a huge fan of the Yelp apps and it’s routinely on my home screen but I can’t help but feel like it needs to strike on something more on the mobile side as we move on. I haven’t found other apps which can deliver the same user-generated reviews on restaurants while I’m out and about but Google just purchased Zagat and it could make a major dent in Yelp’s market by integrating those results into its mobile mapping programs. It’s also facing competition from a slew of startups which are focusing on recommendations like the just-launch Oink app.
Yelp’s apps have dabbled in other features, as you can check-in to locations and even use a nifty augmented reality feature to discover and see the ratings of places around you.0 I’ll definitely be watching how the Yelp apps improve as the IPO nears.
[Via The New York Times]