Yelp Inc. is an American company founded in 2004 by former PayPal employees Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman. It operates the Yelp.com website and the Yelp mobile app, which publish crowd-sourced reviews and ratings for local businesses. The company also offers Yelp Guest Manager, a service for table reservations, enhancing the engagement between consumers and local businesses.

The idea for Yelp originated as an email-based referral network when Stoppelman struggled to find online recommendations for a local doctor. The platform quickly grew to become one of the leading sources of user-generated reviews, expanding its reach beyond the United States into Europe and Asia from 2009 to 2012. In 2012, Yelp went public via an initial public offering and reached profitability two years later.

As of late 2023, Yelp hosts approximately 287 million reviews and attracts millions of unique visitors each month, with a substantial portion of its audience having an annual household income of over $100,000. The company remains headquartered in San Francisco, continuing to innovate and connect consumers to trusted local business recommendations.

Yelp’s enduring mission revolves around providing a platform for users to share honest experiences and help others make informed decisions about local services and businesses, fostering a community built on trust and transparency.