Last year Yelp quietly expanded to Canada without any fanfare. And when I interviewed Yelp co-founders Jeremy Stoppelman and Russell Simmons at SF’s Commonwealth Club last year Stoppelman said that Yelp would go into the UK at some point although the timing was uncertain. Well today the site is launching in the UK, with a focus on London.
I was told that there are already a considerable number of people from the UK that use Yelp’s US listings. That rise in usage from “across the pond” is what triggered the move to the UK at this time apparently.
The irony of Yelp’s UK launch is that a number of UK sites have been influenced or inspired by Yelp’s model and success in the US. Now Yelp will be directly competing with them. There is room for multiple restaurant and entertainment guides of course. To name only a few: TrustedPlaces, TouchLocal, Tipped, YourLocalLondon, TimeOut and so on.
That doesn’t include competitors such as established yellow pages publisher Yell. My recommendation some time ago was that Yell should buy TrustedPlaces and I would still argue that’s a good move. Because in a world of competitive “social directories” (i.e., Yelp et al) the online yellow pages are vulnerable to usage erosion.
Beyond its brand, its community model and UK usage jumpstart Yelp is apparently bringing its offline “Yelp parties” to the UK. This will help drive viral adoption of the site. It also helps with branding as the offline events make being online at Yelp like an extension of the party. Yelp also has iPhone and mobile sites, which will be significant as well in winning usage in London.
Acquiring SMB advertisers is a more difficult matter and will be challenging for all the reasons we’ve spoken about in the past. However what helps in that effort is name/brand recognition. As Yelp gains usage it will be easier to sell ads accordingly. And success in London, as the UK’s largest market, will make penetrating the country as a whole some easier if Yelp develops momentum. It’s not like the US where you have to “start over” to a large degree in market after market.
