Are any of these companies really worth what people are willing to pay?
4 Pre-IPO Companies with White-Hot Valuations According to SharesPost Activity
Posts Tagged ‘Yelp’
B2B Gets Yelp’d
If you’re a restaurant or retailer, you ignore Yelp at your peril. The online forum put businesses’ reputations in the hands of everyday consumers – consumers who mete out reviews based on their individual accounts of quality and helpfulness. The success of the site ushered in a return to customer service becoming a vital part of B2C marketing success.
According to Joe Chernov of Eloqua, now it’s the B2B industry’s turn to get Yelp’d.
China’s Answer To Yelp, Foursquare & Groupon Raises $100Mil
Insiders compare Dianping to Yelp and report the China based social rating site is very popular, involving 2,000 cities in China, with more than 1 million local businesses on its website. The monthly active visitors are over 30 million with over 20 million ratings and reviews on those local businesses.
Social Shopping App TreatFeed Raises $4.5 Million
I can see right away the Darwin theory applies to this program. Like the Nordstrom sales people pool, the fittest and most aggressive “TreatFeeders” survive, making the most money off those at the bottom rung. I am sure the top “TreatFeeders” will have their bragging rights posted on TreatFeed’s home page.
Startup of the Week: Tello, a Yelp-Style Customer Service Rating Site
mbStartups is pleased to announce the Startup of the Week: a weekly post dedicated to the newest faces in new media.
In honor of President’s Day weekend sales, this week’s featured startup is Tello, a forum for thanking businesses for providing excellent customer service. The company’s logo evokes the aesthetics of the 1950′s, said CEO and founder Joe Beninato, “when service used to be good.” We recently met up with Benitato to talk about this latest spin on the rate-it site and the new business model that goes with it.
How it Works
Customers can already voice their opinions on Yelp, but with Tello, instead of skimming through the comments to find out which bridal consultant or massage therapist to book by name, they can check out a local business and instantly see who has gotten the best feedback. “Yelp is about the place – we’re more about the people in the place,” Beninato said. The content is crowd-sourced, with options to add both the name of the business and the employees who work there.
The mobile app, launched February 9th for iPhone, iPad and Android, connects to Facebook and Twitter, and will eventually have a check-in function as well. We tried it out on Baked, the Brooklyn bakery where we conducted the interview. The address popped up, along with a map. Rather than giving a star rating, customers are asked to decide if the experience was positive or negative, and leave a comment if they’d like to elaborate. “People tend to be polarized,” Beninato said of the star-rating system. A simpler question to ask is, “would you recommend it or not?” We didn’t catch the cashier’s name at Baked, but whoever he was, we clicked the icon to give him a thumbs up. A public complaint board runs the risk of subjecting poorly paid cashiers and new hires with too much negative publicity, but Beninato says that so far, 80% of the users have used the service to leave compliments rather than complaints.
Beyond local eateries and shops, Tello is good for any company that relies on customer service to stay competitive, like car dealerships, hotels and airlines. For example, Beninato credits good customer service for moving Virgin America ahead of the competition in an industry that’s suffered from heightened security. “They’re thriving when others are having trouble,” he said, and the pink mood lighting doesn’t hurt, either.
Did Google Just Steal Yelp's Business?
This morning Google officially announced their Google Places application for iPhone and after playing with it for a bit, it appears as though the company just stole Yelp’s business, something that’s much cheaper than acquiring them.
Yelp Beefs Up Business Profile Pages With Video
Yesterday Yelp rolled out a new feature for advertisers – the option to include video on business pages. The addition of video is great for businesses, as it gives them a new vehicle for attracting customers, apart from the traditional pictures and text. This new feature is also fantastic for Yelp, as it sets them apart from competing review sites that have not yet implemented video features.
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Yelp Changes Review Filtering, Tries to be More Transparent
Yelp, a web-based service that lets consumers review or browse reviews of local businesses, is making feature changes to fight claims of manipulated reviews. These changes fall on the heels of a class-action lawsuit based on claims that some Yelp representatives coerced business owners to advertise by manipulating the ordering and thus visibility of negative reviews. Some business owners have even claimed that Yelp even hired people to write negative reviews in the first place.
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Yelp To Follow Facebook's Footsteps – Seeks Private Investment
Yelp, the local business search and review site, is said to be in talks to raise additional financing instead of getting acquired or having a go at the IPO. According to reports Yelp is in talks with Elevation Partners – a major investor in Palm Inc., for the new round of funding. What’s significant about the round is the fact that it may include an option for employees and investors to sell their shares to the investors.
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