Yelp Launches in Japan and Extends Asian Presence

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Apr 08, 2014, 07:00 ET

TOKYO, April 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects consumers with great local businesses, today announced the availability of Yelp Japan (http://www.yelp.co.jp). Beginning today, people throughout Japan are able to create accounts on Yelp.co.jp to share their opinions about great local businesses. Yelp's free iPhone and Android applications will be available as well as its free suite of business owner tools: Yelp for Business Owners (http://biz.yelp.co.jp).

"Japan is a technological and cultural marvel consisting of 6,852 islands and thousands of years of tradition," says Miriam Warren, VP of New Markets. "From their love of sushi, cosplay, tea ceremonies and all things anime, to their unashamed adoration of karaoke, the Japanese know how to meld tradition with modernity unlike any other nation. We are excited to bring Yelp to the country as a whole and help more people connect with their local businesses, whatever they may be looking for."

Japan is Yelp's second Asian country, and its 26^th country globally. It offers the Japanese people the opportunity to share their experiences of the good, the great and the not-so-good businesses around them with the wider Yelp community, helping them make informed buying decisions. The initial community building efforts will be focused on Tokyo and Osaka and each city will get its own Yelp community manager, but businesses from all across Japan are now open to be reviewed on Yelp.

Everyone, everywhere in Japan with Internet access can now share their experiences and top tips about local businesses in their neighborhood, whether via the desktop or a Smartphone. Japanese is the 15^th language supported on Yelp, and the first language that does not use the Roman character set. The full-featured Yelp site and app have been fully adapted to support kanji and katakana characters and will be available at launch.

To learn more and see pictures of Yelp.co.jp and our iPhone and Android applications, visit our Yelp Official Blog (http://officialblog.yelp.com).

About Yelp

Yelp (http://www.yelp.com or http://www.yelp.co.jp) connects people with great local businesses. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp communities have taken root in major metros across the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Singapore, Poland, Turkey, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Portugal, Mexico and Japan. Yelp had a monthly average of 120 million unique visitors in Q4 2013*. By the end of Q4 2013, Yelpers had written more than 53 million rich, local reviews, making Yelp the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists. Approximately 53 million unique visitors visited Yelp via their mobile device on a monthly average basis during Q4 2013. For more information, please visit http://www.yelp.com/ or send an email to [email protected].