Yahoo, Yelp Unite to Boost Local Search - Analyst Blog
March 13 2014 - 2:00PM
Zacks
Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO)
has announced its partnership with Yelp, Inc.
(YELP) to enhance its local search results and attract more
users.
Yelp, a U.S.-based company, is an
online guide and a business review site. It was founded in 2004 to
help people locate local businesses, events and lists through a
search tool provided on the company’s website. In addition,
visitors can access business reviews for organizations that offer
specific types of products and services in their area. Yelp is
available on Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone,
BlackBerry and Android phones.
Per the agreement, Yahoo! will
combine its key search results with important information from Yelp
such as ratings, review site’s listings and reviews of local
businesses. The move can help improve traffic to Yahoo Local, which
is not currently very popular. It could also generate additional
advertising revenues.
Additionally, the partnership could
increase competition for Google Inc. (GOOG). We
believe the Yelp deal could play an important role in helping the
company improve its search revenues, going forward. Last quarter,
the company’s search revenues were up sequentially due to
improvements in the quality of ads, better user experience and new
ad products.
Yahoo! is focused on improving its
search business and aggressively trying to retain and boost its
user base. As per a multi-year agreement, Yahoo!’s main search
technology provider is Microsoft. The technology is integrated with
Yahoo!’s own features and interface. However, this partnership did
not turn out well and resulted in market share losses for Yahoo!.
The company's revenues declined for three consecutive years before
registering a small gain in 2013.
For now, Yahoo still has much to
prove, given the growing success of archrival Google and Facebook.
Facebook has become extremely popular among users, so much so that
it is already the most popular social networking platform.
Additionally, failure to protect user information could hurt its
reputation and credibility, thus slowing down financial growth.
Currently, Yahoo! holds a Zacks
Rank #3 (Hold).
APPLE INC (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report
GOOGLE INC-CL A (GOOG): Free Stock Analysis Report
YELP INC (YELP): Free Stock Analysis Report
YAHOO! INC (YHOO): Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment Research
Yelp (NYSE:YELP)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Yelp (NYSE:YELP)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024