Yelp Releases Local Economic Outlook for Q2 2018
May 15 2018 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Home Automation in America is on the Rise
Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects people with
great local businesses, today announced the quarterly release of
the Yelp Local Economic Outlook, a program to rank U.S. metro areas
by the pace of local-business population growth to reveal the
health of urban economies around the country.
While Yelp is most commonly recognized for our leadership in
restaurants, Home & Local services has become the fastest
growing and largest category by revenue on our platform. In the
first quarter of 2018, Yelpers sent more than 4 million quote
requests, and Home & Local businesses increased the amount they
spend to advertise on Yelp by approximately 30% compared to one
year ago. There are now more than 1 million local businesses set up
to receive consumer quote requests via Yelp.
In an effort to look more closely at the health of the Home
& Local services industry, Yelp also analyzed the growth of the
category on its platform.
In the past two years, searches for “smart home” on Yelp have
quadrupled and continued to grow in 2018.
Of those searches for “smart homes” consumers are most often
then seeking out Home Automation and Security Systems services.
Home Automation in particular is one of the fastest growing
categories on all of Yelp.
Year over year, the number of requests sent through Yelp to home
automation businesses has more than doubled. In response to this
demand, more businesses are opening up shop. There are almost 30%
more home automation businesses on Yelp today than a year ago.
The rapid growth and industry response suggests that the rise of
smart homes may not be a flash in the pan and has extended beyond
early adopters.
While home automation has emerged as one of the fastest growing
business categories on Yelp, we’ve also noticed that the larger
success and growth of home and local service businesses in a city
is strongly linked to the economic health of that city.
Austin, Texas., Leads The Country In Local-Business
Growth
Yelp’s Local Economic Outlook ranks 50 U.S. cities by
local-business investment and success to reveal the health of urban
economies around the country. We measure local-business success by
the rate of change of the business population in each city’s metro
area in the fourth quarter of 2017. Cities where openings greatly
outnumber closures are ones where business owners have spotted
opportunity and found success.
In the first quarter of 2018, Austin, Texas, topped the list.
Largely driven by the growing tech sector and VC investment,
Austin’s unemployment rate in 2017 dropped to levels not seen since
2000. Spurred by the influx of people moving to the area in search
of newly available employment options, construction and home and
local services industries have seen tremendous growth in the Austin
area.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia fell to the bottom of this quarter’s
list, which could be a reflection of the city’s high poverty rate
(25.7), rising homicide rates, and increasing opioid epidemic.
Yelp’s goal in publishing this Outlook is to help policymakers,
researchers and business owners better understanding local
economies in which they operate. Yelp’s full Local Economic Outlook
report can be viewed on the Yelp blog.
Ranking 50 Cities in America for Economic Opportunity
Current Rank City
- Austin, Texas
- Miami
- Atlanta
- Phoenix
- Charlotte, N.C.
- Jacksonville, Fla.
- Albuquerque, N.M.
- Tulsa, Okla.
- Rochester, N.Y.
- New Orleans
- Houston
- Nashville, Tenn.
- Orlando, Fla.
- Portland, Maine
- Denver
- Salt Lake City
- Honolulu
- Louisville, Ky.
- Dallas
- Charleston, S.C.
- Omaha, Neb.
- Cleveland
- Minneapolis
- Saint Louis, Mo.
- Cincinnati
- Washington
- Pittsburgh
- Buffalo, N.Y.
- Columbus
- Seattle
- Los Angeles
- Madison, Wis.
- Tampa, Fla.
- Baltimore
- Las Vegas
- New York
- Richmond, Va.
- Memphis, Tenn.
- Boston
- Chicago
- Hartford, Conn.
- Portland, Ore.
- Milwaukee
- Sacramento, Calif.
- San Francisco
- Providence, R.I.
- San Diego
- Tucson, Ariz.
- San Jose, Calif.
- Philadelphia
Methodology
Yelp, the leader in connecting people with great local
businesses, is putting its rich data stores to work identifying the
parts of the country and types of business with the highest rate of
growth in the number of businesses. Yelp’s data science team is
continually working to identify the best measure of local economic
health. For this quarter, we’re using the rate of change in the
number of businesses in a city, neighborhood or business category
as a way to equally weight business closures -- a sign of economic
challenges -- and business openings, a sign of business investment
and dynamism. We’ll continue to study and refine this measure in
the quarters to come as we release further updates on local
business health.
About Yelp Inc.
Yelp Inc. (www.yelp.com) connects people with great local
businesses. With unmatched local business information, photos and
review content, Yelp provides a platform for consumers to discover,
interact and transact with local businesses of all sizes. Yelp was
founded in San Francisco in July 2004.
Yelp intends to make future announcements of material financial
and other information through its Investor Relations website. Yelp
will also, from time to time, disclose this information through
press releases, filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, conference calls or webcasts, as required by applicable
law.
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Yelp PressLiina Potterpress@yelp.com
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