创新企业之星

商铺点评网站Yelp

公司收入：不详

公司总部：旧金山

所属行业：在线点评

成立时间：2005年

员工人数：750人

    六年前Yelp成立之初，只有旧金山的时尚人士在网站发表有关酒吧和餐厅、代表个人观点的点评信息。如今，它在九个国家经营着63个城市网站，每月吸引5，300多万访客。针对教堂、水管工和宠物狗美容在内的所有商铺，众多Yelp点评者在线义务发表评论，他们骄傲地称自己为Yelpers。最近，Yelp发布了它的第2，000万条评论——对洛杉矶一家名为Joan's on Third饭店的评论。（点评人称它为“艾玛阿姨的超级厨房”。）Yelp获得了5，600万美元的天使投资和风险投资，现在尚未盈利。当然，Yelp也躲不过争议，比如，有人指责它为迎合广告商弹压负面点评。Yelp的创始人兼CEO杰里米•斯托普勒曼（右）否认了这些指控，他更愿意向前看：“我们将成为本行业内无法忽视的存在。其他任何公司都不可能像我们一样，提供如此具有深度的内容。”

    ——理查德•麦吉尔•墨菲

Yelp

Revenue: Not available

Headquarters: San Francisco

Industry: Online reviews

Founded: 2005

Employees: 750

    When it launched six years ago, Yelp was a site where San Francisco hipsters posted attitude-laden reviews of bars and restaurants. Today it operates 63 city sites in nine countries and attracts more than 53 million unique monthly visitors. Yelpers, as the company's myriad unpaid reviewers proudly call themselves, opine on everything from churches to plumbers to dog groomers. The network recently published its 20-millionth review, a write-up of an L.A. eatery called Joan's on Third. (The reviewer described it as "Auntie Em's kitchen on steroids.") Yelp has raised $56 million in angel and VC funding and is not currently profitable. It has attracted its share of controversy, including allegations that it has suppressed negative reviews to please its advertisers. Yelp founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman (right) dismisses the complaint, preferring to look ahead: "We'll be the 3,000-pound gorilla in this space. Nobody else generates our depth of content."

    --Richard McGill Murphy