[Advanced] Yelp Continues on Its Path of Success (1)

In the fractured and fractious world of local advertising, Jeremy Stoppelman and Yelp are shooting for the moon (By Max Chafkin)

Sometime last year, the home button on my iPhone stopped working. I spent a few fruitless hours trying to fix it myself - then proceeded to the Apple Store. Cost: $200.

An easier solution
Then I found Peter. A thirty-something guy, Peter works in a shoebox of an office (on the seventh floor of a shabby building) in San Francisco's financial district. There is a worktable, a watercooler, some mismatched furniture, and, crucially, a letter tacked to his bulletin board with the following words printed in large block letters: PEOPLE LOVE US ON YELP.

To Peter and millions of other local businesses, Yelp, the San Francisco-based company that has become the largest and best source for online reviews, might as well be the Internet. I had found Peter by doing a quick search for "home button repair" using the Yelp app on my barely functional iPhone. I used the app to get directions, and within 10 minutes Peter was dissecting my phone.

Cost: $89, less than half what Apple charges. It was, as I would write in my Yelp review, another five-star experience.

Yelp's mission
When I relate my story to Yelp's 35-year-old CEO and cofounder, Jeremy Stoppelman, he gives me a sly grin. "The mission," he tells me, "is connecting people with great local businesses."

He makes it sound simple, but in fact, Stoppelman is tackling - several of the most bedeviling problems to challenge Internet companies today. Yelp is in the local advertising business, a market that no Internet company has ever truly disrupted but one so tantalizingly large (worth between $90 billion and $130 billion, depending on whom you ask) that it has attracted the likes of Facebook, Google, and Groupon, larger rivals that would like to crush Yelp. Its users are increasingly coming via mobile phones, which are reputedly less amenable to ads.


fractured adj.
/ˋfræktʃɚ/
if a group, country etc fractures, or if it is fractured, it divides into parts in an unfriendly way because of disagreement [= split]

fractious  adj.
/ˈfrækʃəs/
someone who is fractious becomes angry very easily [= irritable]

reach/shoot for the moon
to try to do or get something that is very difficult to do or get
- an ambitious businessman who is always shooting for the moon

fruitless adj.
failing to achieve what was wanted, especially after a lot of effort [≠ fruitful]

shoebox n.
1 a cardboard box that shoes are sold in;
2 a very small room, house etc

tack v.
/ˈtæk/
to attach something to a wall, board etc, using a tack

shabby adj.
shabby clothes, places, or objects are untidy and in bad condition because they have been used for a long time

crucial adj.
/ˈkru:ʃəl/
something that is crucial is extremely important, because everything else depends on it
—crucially adverb

dissect v.
/daɪˈsɛkt, dɪˈsɛkt/

1 to cut up the body of a dead animal or person in order to study it

2 to examine something carefully in order to understand it

3 to divide an area of land into several smaller pieces

sly adj.

/ˈslaɪ/

a smile, look etc that shows you know something secret

grin v.

/ˈgrɪn/

to smile widely

tackle v.

to try to deal with a difficult problem

bedevil v.

/bɪˈdɛvəl/

to cause a lot of problems and difficulties for someone or something over a period of time [= plague]

disrupt v.

to cause (something) to be unable to continue in the normal way : to interrupt the normal progress or activity of (something)  

tantalizing v.

/ˈtæntəˌlaɪz/

to cause (someone) to feel interest or excitement about something that is very attractive, appealing, etc.

—tantalizingly adv.

rival n.

/ˈraɪvəl/

a person, group, or organization that you compete with in sport, business, a fight etc [= competitor]

crush v.

to defeat (a person or group that opposes you) by using a lot of force  

reputedly adv.

according to what some people say [= reportedly] 

amenable adj.

/əˈmi:nəbəl/

willing to accept what someone says or does without arguing

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