New Product Helps Businesses Stand Out on Yelp and Provides Peace of
Mind to Consumers

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP), the company that connects people with great local
businesses, today announced Yelp Verified Licenses, as it continues to
innovate in the home and local services category. The Yelp Verified
License is a new paid product designed for service providers, and is
available for $1 per day to qualified providers within eligible home and
local services categories, including contractors, plumbers, movers, and
other high-trust businesses like medical, childcare and esthetics.

People who visit a Yelp Verified provider’s page, identified by a blue
shield “Verified” badge, will now have more information about the
provider’s qualifications before making a spending decision. To be
eligible for a Yelp Verified License badge, a business must have a valid
trade license to perform their advertised service within the state they
serve. To become verified, a business must apply through Yelp, which
will manually verify the license.

“Building on the significant growth of the home and local category,
we’ve been partnering closely with business owners across the category
to better understand their needs and build products that allow them to
better tell their story and increase trust with consumers,” said Alon
Shiran, Director of Product at Yelp. “We’re excited to announce this
program in response to feedback from business owners who want the
ability to display that they are properly licensed. This is only one of
the many products that we’re building to help business owners take
control of their presence on Yelp and differentiate themselves.”

In early experiments with contractors on Yelp, the Verified License
badge helped both consumers and businesses. On average, having a
Verified License badge on a business page increased consumer engagement,
including clicks, calls, quote requests and other actions, by 24 percent.

More importantly, having a Verified License badge helps level the
playing field for businesses that are newer to the platform and may not
yet have a large presence on Yelp. In early experiments, contractors
with zero reviews saw growth in engagement on their pages after becoming
Yelp Verified.

“Having a Yelp Verified License badge on our business page assures
customers that we’re a capable, trustworthy company. Since becoming Yelp
Verified, we’ve seen a noticeable impact on the number of jobs we
receive,” said Oleg Hryshyn, owner of Gentlemen’s
Moving Company. “During busy season, there are a number of
uncertified movers promoting themselves as competitors and, with the
help of the Yelp Verified License, consumers have peace of mind that
they’re hiring movers that are properly licensed.”

The product is currently available to qualified businesses within
specified categories in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, New York,
Texas, and Washington and will continue to roll out to new states. Yelp
Verified has been well received by business owners in early tests, with
thousands of businesses on Yelp currently purchasing the badge.

The introduction of Yelp Verified Licenses builds on the momentum of the
home and local services category on Yelp. In the fourth quarter of 2018,
Request A Quote project volume on Yelp, which allows consumers to
request project pricing directly from businesses, increased 41% over the
fourth quarter of 2017, growing to 1.6 million projects, representing
4.4 million service requests that consumers chose to send to individual
service providers. In the fourth quarter of 2018, Request A Quote’s
annualized attributable revenue more than doubled to $38 million
compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. As a result of these and other
successes, the company grew 2018 revenue in this category by 29% year
over year.

About Yelp

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.
Since then, Yelp has taken root in major metros in more than 30
countries.

Contacts

Liina Potter
(925) 895-3786
[email protected]