Yelp异军突起为网络股正名

    在面向消费者的互联网行业中，大鱼和小虾一直长期并存。人们谈得最多的要么是谷歌（Google）和Facebook这样的大企业，要么是炙手可热的小创业公司。这类小公司人手不多，但个个是精兵强将，手握类似于Pinterest或Tumblr这样的明星产品。

    然而，在这两大阵营之间，还有一个小型群体，它们规模太小算不上巨头，成立时间也足够久，不算是初创企业。它们中的佼佼者创立于五至十年前，在过去几年里上了市。其中有一些，比如社交游戏公司Zynga，目前日子并不好过。而另外一些，比如点评网站Yelp、旅游网站TripAdvisor、流媒体音乐网站Pandora和 订餐平台OpenTable，却在2013年闷声发大财，日子过得颇为滋润。不过今年夏天市场关注的焦点还是集中在Facebook、雅虎公司（Yahoo）和谷歌身上。它们近期的营收表现非常抢眼，股价也纷纷上扬，今年至今已分别上涨了28%、40%和41%。

    尽管这些巨头的股票表现强劲，但另外几家中型网络公司的业绩却更胜一筹——在某些方面可以说是远为出色。OpenTable的股价今年上涨了42%，TripAdvisor上涨了81%，Pandora今年更是实现了翻番，涨幅高达104%。最让人惊叹的是Yelp，它的股价涨幅高达173%！上市不过才16个多月，Yelp目前的股价已经涨到了51.50美元，是开盘价15美元的三倍还多。

    要想研究那些成熟的中型企业是如何在这个竞争激烈、不断变化的市场上实现快速增长的，Yelp是个绝佳案例。在6月结束的财季中，这家公司报告称营收达到5,500万美元，这个数字只是Facebook的 18亿美元和谷歌的140亿美元营收的一个零头。但它体现的是同比69%的增幅，远高于Facebook的 51%和谷歌的18%。

    更让投资者倍感鼓舞的是，在这个财季，Yelp在不影响营收增长的情况下成功地减少了支出。公司花钱的两个大头——销售和营销的费用从去年占营收的62%下降到了56%。与此同时，产品研发成本则从13%增加到了15%，原因是公司雇用了更多工程师开发Call to Action这样的新功能。这是一项广告功能，能帮助零售商在Yelp上提供电影票或折扣券。

    总的算来，营运成本已降得足够低，因此Yelp每股损失仅为1美分。这当然不是众多投资者要求的利润，但已经比去年同期要少损失两美分，也比华尔街此前预期的每股4美分损失要好得多。而且，公司上一财季的营运现金流已回到正的510万美元的水平，而去年同期还是负的240万美元。

    换言之，就算大幅压缩了成本，同时投资于新的增长领域，Yelp仍然保持了强劲的增长势头。地方性广告——优化的公司简介和站内广告——占Yelp总营收的81%，并仍保持了每年77%的增幅。Yelp早在2005-2006年就进入了旧金山市场，在这种Yelp较早涉足的市场中，本地广告营收仍增长了43%。对一家如此年轻的网络公司来说，这种增长率实在是可圈可点。

    In the consumer-web industry, the landscape has been largely divided between the big fish and the small fry. The most-discussed companies have either been giants like Google (GOOG) or Facebook (FB) or red-hot startups with lean staff and viral offerings such as Pinterest or Tumblr.

    In between these two camps, however, is a small crowd of companies that are too small to be giants and too old to be startups. The best of them emerged five or 10 years ago and went public in the past few years. Some, like Zynga (ZNGA) are having a rough go of it. But others, like Yelp (YELP), TripAdvisor (TRIP), Pandora (P), and OpenTable (OPEN), are without much fanfare having a great year in 2013.

    Much of the discussion about consumer-web stocks this summer has focused on Facebook, Yahoo (YHOO), and Google. All of them have impressed with strong earnings in recent quarters, and their stocks are up, respectively, 28%, 40%, and 41% in the year to date.

    As impressive as those stock performances are, several mid-sized web companies are doing better -- in some cases much better. OpenTable is up 42% this year. TripAdvisor is up 81%. Pandora has more than doubled this year, rising 104%. And most impressive, Yelp has gained 173%. After a little more than 16 months, Yelp is trading at $51.50 a share, more than three times its $15 offering price.

    Yelp is a good case study in how established but mid-sized web companies are navigating growth in a competitive and evolving market. The company reported $55 million in revenue in the June quarter, a fraction of Facebook's $1.8 billion and Google's $14 billion. But revenue grew 69% from the same quarter a year earlier, faster than Facebook's 51% and Google's 18%.

    More encouraging for investors, Yelp managed to lower expenses this quarter without hurting that revenue growth. Sales and marketing, the company's biggest expense item, fell to 56% of revenue from 62% a year earlier. Product development costs rose to 15% from 13% as the company hired engineers to work on new features like Call to Action, a promotion feature that lets merchants offer movie tickets or discounted deals on Yelp.

    All told, the operating costs were low enough that Yelp posted a loss of one cent a share. That is still not the black ink many investors demand, but it's two cents lower than a year ago and much better than the consensus 4-cents-a-share loss that Wall Street had been forecasting. And the company's cash flow from operations swung to a positive $5.1 million last quarter from a negative $2.4 million a year ago.

    In other words, Yelp's expansion isn't losing momentum even as the company tightens up its costs and invests in new areas of growth. Local advertising -- enhanced profiles and in-site ads for merchants -- makes up 81% of Yelp's total revenue. It's still growing by 77% a year. In the early markets like San Francisco that Yelp first launched in in 2005 and 2006, local ad revenue is still rising 43%. For a web company Yelp's age, that growth rate isn't bad.