Story of Yelp's Product Growth: From a Slow Start to a Must-Have Service

Introduction to Yelp's Journey

This is the story of Yelp's Product Growth. How just by reading into user behavior and analyzing the data they made their product viral.

When Yelp launched in 2004, it was entering a crowded market dominated by larger players such as Citysearch.com. Founded by Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp aimed to be a local search and review service for businesses, but its early growth was slow. Even Stoppelman himself had doubts about the value of the service.

The Pivot Point: Understanding User Behavior

However, the team at Yelp made a groundbreaking discovery that would change the course of the company's growth: a significant number of users were using a feature on the site to post reviews of local businesses.

This insight led the team to pivot their business model and put reviews at the center of the user experience. They also created 20 million profiles for small businesses in the Bay Area and encouraged users to add their reviews.

From Slow Growth to Success: Yelp's #AhaMome…