Restaurant and shopping review company Yelp executed its initial public offering, and its stock was trading up to 73% higher than its $15 pricing at its debut on Nasdaq.
Coupled with the so-far-successful TripAdvisor's IPO, the dual public-market fundraisers amount to a resounding endorsement of travel reviews and user generated content. Yelped raised $107.3 million in the IPO, according to Bloomberg.
If Yelp's stock is moving on Nasdaq, the company's 66 million monthly unique visitors, many of whom have penned some of its 25 million reviews, are also on the move.
Yelp states that a seemingly astounding 42% of searches on its platform were carried out by users of its mobile app, including versions for iPhone and iPod touch, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, Palm Pre, and Yelp's mobile website.
"Almost every second on average, consumers used our mobile app to look up directions to or call a local business for the quarter ended December 31, 2011," Yelp states in a financial filing. "We expect mobile device usage to continue to grow and believe that this is complementary to the use of our website."
For a time last year, Yelp took the honor as the #1 free travel app in the Apple App store.
Yelp's prime review focus is on shopping (23%) and restaurants (22%). Just 4% of reviews are for "travel and hotel" businesses while arts, entertainment and event business attract 7% of reviews and nightlife businesses garner 4%.