Yelp hosts 7.8 million business listings and has accumulated 214 million reviews. The platform's influence is clear, with 1.2 million local businesses paying for advertising.
Key Takeaways
- Yelp total listed businesses: 7.8 million as of 2023
- 82% of Yelp-listed businesses are small independents
- Active claiming rate: 40% of businesses claim profiles
- Yelp was founded in 2004 by former PayPal employees Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons
- As of 2023, Yelp has over 199 million cumulative reviews
- Yelp went public on March 21, 2012, on the NYSE under ticker YELP
- Yelp revenue from services: $1.34 billion in FY 2023
- Net income for Yelp: $99 million in 2023, up 54% YoY
- Advertising revenue: $1.10 billion, 82% of total in 2023
- Yelp active user base grew 5% YoY to 178M in 2023
- Reviews grew 8% YoY to 214M cumulative in Q1 2024
- Yelp advertising revenue up 8% YoY in Q4 2023
- Yelp received 142 million reviews in 2023 total
- Average Yelp rating across all businesses: 3.7 stars in 2023
- 93 million reviews for restaurants category in 2023
With 214 million reviews and 7.8 million businesses, Yelp shows how local discovery and review speed drive claiming and growth.
Related reading
01 · Category
Business Metrics21 stats
01
Yelp total listed businesses: 7.8 million as of 2023
02
82% of Yelp-listed businesses are small independents
03
Active claiming rate: 40% of businesses claim profiles
04
Top Yelp city for businesses: New York with 250k listings
05
Yelp restaurant listings: 2.1 million in US alone
06
1.2 million ad-enabled businesses paying Yelp in 2023
07
Average Yelp business has 25 reviews
08
76% of businesses respond to reviews within 24 hours if active
09
Yelp Pro accounts: 100,000+ premium business subscribers
10
5 million check-ins recorded monthly on Yelp 2023
11
Beauty & Spas: 600k listings on Yelp
12
28% YoY growth in Request A Quote leads in 2023
13
Yelp-verified license businesses: 1 million+
14
Average cost per lead for Yelp advertisers: $25in 2023
15
90% of top-ranked businesses claim their Yelp page
16
Home Services listings grew to 450k in 2023
17
Yelp events hosted by businesses: 50k annually
18
65% of businesses see revenue lift from positive reviews
19
Automotive repair shops: 120k on Yelp US
20
Yelp advertising penetration: 15% of listed businesses
21
300k new business claims quarterly average 2023
Interpretation
Business Metrics Interpretation
Yelp is a digital town square where 7.8 million businesses have set up shop, but only about 40% have bothered to unlock the front door, leaving a charmingly chaotic marketplace where a few savvy independents have figured out that answering the phone (or rather, the reviews) is still the best way to get paid.
02 · Category
Company Overview30 stats
01
Yelp was founded in 2004 by former PayPal employees Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons
02
As of 2023, Yelp has over 199 million cumulative reviews
03
Yelp went public on March 21, 2012, on the NYSE under ticker YELP
04
Yelp's headquarters is located in San Francisco, California
05
Yelp operates in 32 countries worldwide as of 2023
06
Yelp acquired Eat24 in 2017 for $108 million to enhance food delivery
07
Yelp launched in the United States initially targeting San Francisco
08
Yelp has more than 1,000 employees as of 2023
09
Yelp's mission is to connect people with great local businesses
10
Yelp rebranded its review filtering in 2010 after controversies
11
Yelp Inc. market capitalization stood at $2.4 billion as of end-2023
12
Yelp supports over 10,000 categories of local businesses
13
Yelp's first international expansion was to the UK in 2008
14
Yelp integrated Google Maps for location services early on
15
Yelp raised $15 million in Series B funding in 2006 from Benchmark Capital
16
Yelp's app was downloaded over 50 million times by 2020
17
Yelp Elite Squad recognizes top contributors annually
18
Yelp hosts Yelp Weekends events for Elite members
19
Yelp acquired Turnstyle in 2017 for mobile analytics
20
Yelp's San Francisco HQ spans 100,000 square feet
21
Yelp was named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in 2014
22
Yelp's co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman owns about 7% of shares as of 2023
23
Yelp integrated with Apple Maps in 2013
24
Yelp launched Request A Quote feature in 2012
25
Yelp's total addressable market estimated at $100B+ in local search
26
Yelp sued ReviewMeta for defamation in 2016
27
Yelp's first office was in Jeremy Stoppelman's apartment
28
Yelp expanded to Canada in 2009
29
Yelp's 2023 annual report filed with SEC on Feb 15, 2024
30
Yelp powered Foursquare's early reviews until 2010 split
Interpretation
Company Overview Interpretation
From a San Francisco apartment to a $2.4 billion global arbiter of taste, Yelp has transformed two decades of public opinion, nearly 200 million reviews, and more than a few lawsuits into a digital town square where everyone's a critic and local businesses live or die by the stars.
03 · Category
Financial Metrics24 stats
01
Yelp revenue from services: $1.34 billion in FY 2023
02
Net income for Yelp: $99 million in 2023, up 54% YoY
03
Advertising revenue: $1.10 billion, 82% of total in 2023
04
Yelp Q4 2023 revenue: $346 million, up 9% YoY
05
Cost of revenue: $104 million in FY 2023
06
Yelp adjusted EBITDA: $385 million in 2023
07
R&D expenses: $203 million or 15% of revenue in 2023
08
Sales & Marketing costs: $393 million in FY 2023
09
Yelp cash & equivalents: $467 million end-2023
10
Gross margin: 70% for 2023 full year
11
Yelp dividends: none paid, all reinvested
12
Total assets: $1.5 billion as of Dec 2023
13
Operating margin: 18% in Q4 2023
14
Yelp share repurchases: $50 million authorized in 2023
15
Transaction-based revenue: $240 million in 2023
16
G&A expenses: $185 million in FY 2023
17
Yelp EPS diluted: $1.39in 2023
18
Revenue per employee: $1.2 million in 2023
19
Yelp debt: zero long-term debt as of 2023
20
Free cash flow: $285 million in FY 2023
21
Yelp stock price high 2023: $53.92
22
Tax rate effective: 25% in 2023
23
Yelp advertising ARPU: $920annually per advertiser 2023
24
Yelp grew revenue 7% CAGR from 2019-2023
Interpretation
Financial Metrics Interpretation
Yelp has masterfully evolved into a high-margin advertising machine, deftly converting the public's gripes and praise into a steady billion-dollar stream, proving that a crowd-sourced opinion can be a remarkably lucrative business when you focus on the advertisers, not the reviewers.
More related reading
04 · Category
Growth Trends23 stats
01
Yelp active user base grew 5% YoY to 178M in 2023
02
Reviews grew 8% YoY to 214M cumulative in Q1 2024
03
Yelp advertising revenue up 8% YoY in Q4 2023
04
International revenue share: 5% of total in 2023
05
Yelp app downloads up 12% YoY in 2023
06
Business claims increased 10% YoY to 2.5M claimed
07
Yelp EBITDA margin expanded to 28% in 2023
08
New listings added: 500k in 2023
09
Yelp mobile traffic share: 60% up from 50% in 2022
10
Request A Quote conversions up 20% YoY 2023
11
Yelp net income grew 54% YoY to $99M in 2023
12
Active advertisers: up 5% to 120k in 2023
13
Yelp stock returned 25% in 2023
14
Video reviews grew 50% YoY in 2023
15
Yelp international markets: +2 new countries in 2023
16
Free cash flow up 40% to $285M in 2023
17
Yelp user engagement hours up 7% YoY 2023
18
Home services leads +30% YoY in 2023
19
Yelp ARPU up 3% to $920 in 2023
20
Total reviews +7% YoY growth rate 2023
21
Yelp market share in local reviews: 25% US 2023
22
Employee headcount stable at 4,600 in 2023
23
Yelp acquisitions: 3 in last 5 years boosting growth
Interpretation
Growth Trends Interpretation
While Yelp's growth is nothing to scoff at—with its user base swelling, advertisers flocking, and its coffers bursting—it’s still largely a hometown hero, with a modest 5% of its revenue coming from abroad, proving that even when you're on top of the local review game, conquering the world is a whole other story.
05 · Category
Review Metrics23 stats
01
Yelp received 142 million reviews in 2023 total
02
Average Yelp rating across all businesses: 3.7 stars in 2023
03
93 million reviews for restaurants category in 2023
04
Yelp filters 20-30% of suspicious reviews daily
05
Top review category: Restaurants with 40% of reviews
06
Average time to first review for new listing: 45 days
07
1.5 million photos uploaded to reviews monthly 2023
08
Yelp 5-star reviews increased 15% YoY in 2023
09
27% of reviews mention "service" keyword in 2023
10
Yelp processes 500,000 review recommendations daily
11
Restaurants receive 70% of all Yelp reviews
12
Average review response rate by businesses: 12%
13
Yelp 1-star reviews dropped 10% in 2023 due to policies
14
65 million shopping-related reviews cumulative
15
Videos in reviews: over 1 million uploaded by 2023
16
Elite reviews represent 15% of total high-quality reviews
17
35% of reviews edited post-submission in 2023
18
Health & Medical category: 12 million reviews
19
Yelp review velocity: 400k new reviews/day average 2023
20
22% of reviews flagged by users before filtering
21
Automotive reviews: 8% of total Yelp reviews
22
Home services reviews grew 25% YoY in 2023
23
48% of 5-star reviews include photos
Interpretation
Review Metrics Interpretation
While Yelp's 3.7-star average suggests we're all seasoned, critical diners, the avalanche of photos and the 15% jump in five-star reviews quietly reveals our underlying optimism, proving we’d much rather celebrate a good meal than suffer through a bad one.
06 · Category
User Metrics26 stats
01
Yelp monthly active users reached 178 million in Q4 2023
02
Average Yelp user contributes 11 reviews lifetime as of 2022
03
79% of Yelp users are mobile app users per 2023 survey
04
Yelp desktop site traffic: 48 million visits/month in 2023
05
36 million unique desktop visitors to Yelp monthly in 2023
06
Yelp app has 4.8/5 rating on Apple App Store with 2.3M reviews
07
71% of Yelp users check reviews before visiting a business
08
Yelp's US user base: 80% of total users in 2023
09
Average time spent per Yelp session: 6.5 minutes in 2023
10
65% of Yelp users are aged 25-44 per 2022 demographics
11
Yelp mobile app downloads: 10 million in 2023 alone
12
82% of Yelp reviews come from verified users post-2019 policy
13
Yelp user retention rate: 45% monthly active in Q3 2023
14
55% of Yelp users are female according to 2023 data
15
Yelp's top user markets: California with 25% of users
16
Average Yelp review length: 145 words in 2023 analysis
17
29% of Yelp users post photos with reviews
18
Yelp community size: over 10 million reviewers ever
19
40% of Yelp traffic from search engines in 2023
20
Yelp app Android downloads: 5 million in 2023
21
67% of Yelp users use it for restaurant discovery
22
Yelp bounce rate: 42% per 2023 analytics
23
1.2 million new reviews added monthly average 2023
24
Yelp pages per session: 4.8 average in 2023
25
22% of users aged 18-24 in Yelp demographics 2023
26
Yelp total cumulative reviews: 214 million as of Q1 2024
Interpretation
User Metrics Interpretation
Yelp's statistics paint a portrait of a fickle yet profoundly influential digital town square, where millions of users briefly pop in on their phones to cast long-lasting judgments over lunch.
Reference
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
APA
Helena Kowalczyk. (2026, February 13). Yelp Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/yelp-statistics
MLA
Helena Kowalczyk. "Yelp Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/yelp-statistics.
Chicago
Helena Kowalczyk. 2026. "Yelp Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/yelp-statistics.
Sources & references
28 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level