YELP Yelp Inc

2024 Net Revenue reached a record high of $1.41 billion

2024 Net Income up 34% to a strong $133 million

2024 Adjusted EBITDA increased 8% to a record $358 million

Expects 2025 Net Revenue in the range of $1.470 billion to $1.485 billion and Adjusted EBITDA1 in the range of $345 million to $360 million

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects people with great local businesses, today posted its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended Dec. 31, 2024 in the Q4 and Full Year 2024 Shareholder Letter available on its Investor Relations website at yelp-ir.com.

“Yelp's 2024 results reflect the strong execution on our services roadmap,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “In the fourth quarter, we delivered our 15th consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year growth in services revenue, contributing to Yelp's record net revenue and strong profitability in the full year. Our product-led strategy continued to drive the growth of our business. We introduced more than 80 new features and updates as we leveraged AI to drive more connections between consumers and service pros. Looking ahead, we remain confident in the opportunities across services categories to drive long-term profitable growth.”

“Services drove our business performance, with advertising revenue from these categories up 11% year over year to a record $879 million, offsetting a challenging environment for restaurant, retail and other categories,” said David Schwarzbach, Yelp’s chief financial officer. “We achieved strong overall profitability, while decreasing our share count resulting in a 40% year-over-year increase in diluted earnings per share. Our focus remains on investing in our strategic initiatives to deliver shareholder value over the long term.”

2024 Key Business Highlights

Yelp’s focus on its services roadmap drove 2024 results:

• Net revenue increased by 6% year over year to a record $1.41 billion, $13 million above the midpoint of the updated range Yelp provided in November 2024 and $18 million below the midpoint of the initial range we provided in February 2024.

• Net income increased by 34% year over year to $133 million, representing a 9% net income margin.

• Adjusted EBITDA grew by 8% year over year to $358 million, $15 million above the midpoint of the updated range the company provided in November 2024 and $33 million above the midpoint of the initial range provided in February 2024, representing a 25% adjusted EBITDA margin.

• In Services, advertising revenue increased 11% year over year to a record $879 million.

• Advertising revenue from Restaurants, Retail & Other (RR&O) businesses decreased by 3% year over year to $470 million.

• With a decrease in RR&O paying advertising locations offsetting growth in Services paying advertising locations, total paying advertising locations for the year decreased by 5%, while average revenue per location reached an annual record.

• Ad clicks for the year increased by 6%, while average cost-per-click was flat, in each case driven by improvements to our advertising technology and, to a lesser extent, our acquisition of Services projects through paid search.

• On the consumer side of our business, Yelp continued to grow our trusted review content through contributions from our large user base. Yelp users contributed 21 million new reviews in 2024, resulting in 308 million cumulative reviews, up 7% from the prior year.

Outlook

The company expects 2025 Net Revenue will be in the range of $1.470 billion to $1.485 billion as Yelp continues working to deliver the leading product experience in Services for consumers and service pros. The company also expects 2025 Adjusted EBITDA1 will be in the range of $345 million to $360 million.

Quarterly Conference Call

Yelp will host a live webcast today at 2 p.m. Pacific Time to discuss the fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results and outlook for the first quarter and full year 2025. The webcast of the Q&A can be accessed on the Yelp Investor Relations website at yelp-ir.com. A replay of the webcast will be available at the same website.

About Yelp

Yelp Inc. (yelp.com) is a community-driven platform that connects people with great local businesses. Millions of people rely on Yelp for useful and trusted local business information, reviews and photos to help inform their spending decisions. As a one-stop local platform, Yelp helps consumers easily discover, connect and transact with businesses across a broad range of categories by making it easy to request a quote for a service, book a table at a restaurant, and more. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in 2004.

Yelp intends to make future announcements of material financial and other information through its Investor Relations website. Yelp will also, from time to time, disclose this information through press releases, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, conference calls, or webcasts, as required by applicable law.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, Yelp’s future performance, including its expected financial results for 2025, and its ability to drive shareholder value over the long term, that are based on its current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties.

Yelp’s actual results could differ materially from those predicted or implied and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to:

• macroeconomic uncertainty — including related to inflation, interest rates, tariffs, labor and supply chain issues, as well as severe weather events and the prevalence of seasonal respiratory illnesses — and its effect on consumer behavior, user activity and advertiser spending;

• Yelp’s ability to maintain and expand its base of advertisers, particularly if advertiser turnover substantially worsens and/or consumer demand significantly degrades;

• Yelp’s ability to drive continued growth through its strategic initiatives;

• Yelp’s ability to continue to operate effectively with a primarily remote work force and attract and retain key talent;

• Yelp’s limited operating history in an evolving industry; and

• Yelp’s ability to generate and maintain sufficient high-quality content from its users.

Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences also include, but are not limited to, those factors that could affect Yelp’s business, operating results and stock price included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Yelp’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q at yelp-ir.com or the SEC’s website at sec.gov.

_______________________________

1 Yelp has not reconciled its Adjusted EBITDA outlook to GAAP Net income (loss) because it does not provide an outlook for GAAP Net income (loss) due to the uncertainty and potential variability of Other income, net and Provision for (benefit from) income taxes, which are reconciling items between Adjusted EBITDA and GAAP Net income (loss). Because Yelp cannot reasonably predict such items, a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure outlook to the corresponding GAAP measure is not available without unreasonable effort. We caution, however, that such items could have a significant impact on the calculation of GAAP Net income (loss). For more information regarding the non-GAAP financial measures discussed in this release, please see “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below.

YELP INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(In thousands)

(Unaudited)

 

 

December 31, 2024

 

December 31, 2023

Assets

 

 

 

Current assets:

 

 

 

Cash and cash equivalents

$

217,325

 

 

$

313,911

 

Short-term marketable securities

 

100,581

 

 

 

127,485

 

Accounts receivable, net

 

155,325

 

 

 

146,147

 

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

 

43,648

 

 

 

36,673

 

Total current assets

 

516,879

 

 

 

624,216

 

Property, equipment and software, net

 

75,669

 

 

 

68,684

 

Operating lease right-of-use assets

 

24,112

 

 

 

48,573

 

Goodwill

 

130,980

 

 

 

103,886

 

Intangibles, net

 

58,787

 

 

 

7,638

 

Other non-current assets

 

177,140

 

 

 

161,726

 

Total assets

$

983,567

 

 

$

1,014,723

 

 

 

 

 

Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity

 

 

 

Current liabilities:

 

 

 

Accounts payable and accrued liabilities

$

131,322

 

 

$

132,809

 

Operating lease liabilities — current

 

20,679

 

 

 

39,234

 

Deferred revenue

 

2,973

 

 

 

3,821

 

Total current liabilities

 

154,974

 

 

 

175,864

 

Operating lease liabilities — long-term

 

22,470

 

 

 

48,065

 

Other long-term liabilities

 

62,154

 

 

 

41,260

 

Total liabilities

 

239,598

 

 

 

265,189

 

 

 

 

 

Stockholders’ equity:

 

 

 

Common stock

 

—

 

 

 

—

 

Additional paid-in capital

 

1,903,598

 

 

 

1,786,667

 

Treasury stock

 

(3,909

)

 

 

(282

)

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

 

(15,431

)

 

 

(12,202

)

Accumulated deficit

 

(1,140,289

)

 

 

(1,024,649

)

Total stockholders’ equity

 

743,969

 

 

 

749,534

 

Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity

$

983,567

 

 

$

1,014,723

 

YELP INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(In thousands, except per share data)

(Unaudited)

 

 

Three Months Ended December 31,

 

Year Ended December 31,

 

2024

 

2023

 

2024

 

2023

Net revenue

$

361,952

 

$

342,376

 

$

1,412,064

 

$

1,337,062

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Costs and expenses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cost of revenue(1)

 

33,270

 

 

29,616

 

 

123,684

 

 

114,229

Sales and marketing(1)

 

143,263

 

 

132,297

 

 

585,978

 

 

556,605

Product development(1)

 

74,937

 

 

78,323

 

 

325,992

 

 

332,570

General and administrative(1)

 

45,487

 

 

66,822

 

 

184,958

 

 

212,431

Depreciation and amortization

 

11,566

 

 

10,303

 

 

40,407

 

 

42,184

Total costs and expenses

 

308,523

 

 

317,361

 

 

1,261,019

 

 

1,258,019

Income from operations

 

53,429

 

 

25,015

 

 

151,045

 

 

79,043

Other income, net

 

6,638

 

 

8,775

 

 

31,915

 

 

26,039

Income before income taxes

 

60,067

 

 

33,790

 

 

182,960

 

 

105,082

Provision for income taxes

 

17,847

 

 

6,384

 

 

50,110

 

 

5,909

Net income attributable to common stockholders

$

42,220

 

$

27,406

 

$

132,850

 

$

99,173

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net income per share attributable to common stockholders

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basic

$

0.64

 

$

0.40

 

$

1.97

 

$

1.43

Diluted

$

0.62

 

$

0.37

 

$

1.88

 

$

1.35

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weighted-average shares used to compute net income per share attributable to common stockholders

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basic

 

66,083

 

 

68,790

 

 

67,415

 

 

69,221

Diluted

 

67,989

 

 

73,159

 

 

70,611

 

 

73,596

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

 

Three Months Ended December 31,

 

Year Ended December 31,

 

2024

 

2023

 

2024

 

2023

Cost of revenue

$

1,110

 

$

1,248

 

$

5,209

 

$

5,274

Sales and marketing

 

7,531

 

 

8,266

 

 

33,436

 

 

35,187

Product development

 

18,436

 

 

22,627

 

 

85,510

 

 

97,515

General and administrative

 

7,720

 

 

8,006

 

 

34,038

 

 

35,475

Total stock-based compensation

$

34,797

 

$

40,147

 

$

158,193

 

$

173,451

YELP INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(In thousands)

(Unaudited)

 

 

Year Ended December 31,

 

2024

 

2023

Operating Activities

 

 

 

Net income

$

132,850

 

 

$

99,173

 

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:

 

 

 

Depreciation and amortization

 

40,407

 

 

 

42,184

 

Provision for doubtful accounts

 

45,614

 

 

 

40,702

 

Stock-based compensation

 

158,193

 

 

 

173,451

 

Amortization of right-of-use assets

 

15,094

 

 

 

28,084

 

Deferred income taxes

 

(24,920

)

 

 

(22,150

)

Amortization of deferred contract cost

 

24,854

 

 

 

24,035

 

Asset impairment

 

5,914

 

 

 

23,563

 

Other adjustments, net

 

(2,412

)

 

 

(410

)

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

 

 

 

Accounts receivable

 

(51,033

)

 

 

(54,947

)

Prepaid expenses and other assets

 

(24,314

)

 

 

(5,123

)

Operating lease liabilities

 

(39,230

)

 

 

(39,734

)

Accounts payable, accrued liabilities and other liabilities

 

4,798

 

 

 

(2,548

)

Net cash provided by operating activities

 

285,815

 

 

 

306,280

 

 

 

 

 

Investing Activities

 

 

 

Purchases of marketable securities — available-for-sale

 

(94,304

)

 

 

(148,448

)

Sales and maturities of marketable securities — available-for-sale

 

123,094

 

 

 

117,916

 

Purchases of other investments

 

(2,500

)

 

 

—

 

Maturities of other investments

 

—

 

 

 

2,500

 

Acquisition, net of cash received

 

(66,199

)

 

 

—

 

Purchases of property, equipment and software

 

(37,347

)

 

 

(26,847

)

Other investing activities

 

(10

)

 

 

195

 

Net cash used in investing activities

 

(77,266

)

 

 

(54,684

)

 

 

 

 

Financing Activities

 

 

 

Proceeds from issuance of common stock for employee stock-based plans

 

20,790

 

 

 

39,510

 

Taxes paid related to the net share settlement of equity awards

 

(73,411

)

 

 

(85,180

)

Repurchases of common stock, including excise tax

 

(251,181

)

 

 

(199,999

)

Payment of issuance costs for credit facility

 

—

 

 

 

(1,109

)

Net cash used in financing activities

 

(303,802

)

 

 

(246,778

)

 

 

 

 

Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

 

(1,067

)

 

 

2,046

 

 

 

 

 

Change in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

 

(96,320

)

 

 

6,864

 

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash — Beginning of period

 

314,002

 

 

 

307,138

 

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash — End of period

$

217,682

 

 

$

314,002

 

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release and statements made during the above referenced webcast may include information relating to Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin and Free cash flow, each of which the Securities and Exchange Commission has defined as a “non-GAAP financial measure.”

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), adjusted to exclude: provision for (benefit from) income taxes; other income, net; depreciation and amortization; stock-based compensation expense; and, in certain periods, certain other income and expense items, such as material litigation settlements, impairment charges, acquisition and integration costs and fees related to shareholder activism that we deem not to be indicative of our ongoing operating performance. We define Adjusted EBITDA margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by net revenue. We define Free cash flow as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, less cash used for purchases of property, equipment and software.

Adjusted EBITDA and Free cash flow, which are not prepared under any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles, have limitations as analytical tools and you should not consider them in isolation or as substitutes for analysis of Yelp’s financial results as reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”). In particular, Adjusted EBITDA and Free cash flow should not be viewed as substitutes for, or superior to, net income (loss) or net cash provided by (used in) operating activities prepared in accordance with GAAP as measures of profitability or liquidity. Some of these limitations are:

• although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect all cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements;

• Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, Yelp’s working capital needs;

• Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the impact of the recording or release of valuation allowances or tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to Yelp;

• Adjusted EBITDA does not consider the potentially dilutive impact of equity-based compensation;

• Adjusted EBITDA does not take into account any income or costs that management determines are not indicative of ongoing operating performance, such as material litigation settlements, impairment charges, acquisition and integration costs and fees related to shareholder activism;

• Free cash flow does not represent the total residual cash flow available for discretionary purposes because it does not reflect our contractual commitments or obligations; and

• other companies, including those in Yelp’s industry, may calculate Adjusted EBITDA and Free cash flow differently, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures.

Because of these limitations, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin and Free cash flow alongside other financial performance measures, including net income (loss), net cash provided by (used in) operating activities and Yelp’s other GAAP results.

The following is a reconciliation of net income to Adjusted EBITDA, as well as the calculation of net income margin and Adjusted EBITDA margin, for each of the periods indicated (in thousands, except percentages; unaudited):

 

Three Months Ended December 31,

 

Year Ended December 31,

 

2024

 

2023

 

2024

 

2023

Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net income

$

42,220

 

 

$

27,406

 

 

$

132,850

 

 

$

99,173

 

Provision for income taxes

 

17,847

 

 

 

6,384

 

 

 

50,110

 

 

 

5,909

 

Other income, net(1)

 

(6,638

)

 

 

(8,775

)

 

 

(31,915

)

 

 

(26,039

)

Depreciation and amortization

 

11,566

 

 

 

10,303

 

 

 

40,407

 

 

 

42,184

 

Stock-based compensation

 

34,797

 

 

 

40,147

 

 

 

158,193

 

 

 

173,451

 

Litigation settlement(2)(3)

 

—

 

 

 

—

 

 

 

—

 

 

 

11,000

 

Asset impairment(2)

 

—

 

 

 

20,008

 

 

 

5,914

 

 

 

23,563

 

Acquisition and integration costs(2)

 

1,266

 

 

 

—

 

 

 

1,266

 

 

 

—

 

Fees related to shareholder activism(2)

 

—

 

 

 

581

 

 

 

1,168

 

 

 

1,252

 

Adjusted EBITDA

$

101,058

 

 

$

96,054

 

 

$

357,993

 

 

$

330,493

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net revenue

$

361,952

 

 

$

342,376

 

 

$

1,412,064

 

 

$

1,337,062

 

Net income margin

 

12

%

 

 

8

%

 

 

9

%

 

 

7

%

Adjusted EBITDA margin

 

28

%

 

 

28

%

 

 

25

%

 

 

25

%

(1)

Includes the release of a $3.1 million reserve related to a one-time payroll tax credit in the year ended December 31, 2024.

(2)

Recorded within general and administrative expenses on our Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations.

(3)

Represents the loss contingency recorded in connection with the settlement of a putative class action lawsuit asserting claims under the California Invasion of Privacy Act. For additional information, see our most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

The following is a reconciliation of net cash provided by operating activities to Free cash flow for each of the periods indicated (in thousands; unaudited):

 

Three Months Ended December 31,

 

Year Ended December 31,

 

2024

 

2023

 

2024

 

2023

Reconciliation of Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities to Free Cash Flow:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net cash provided by operating activities

$

70,973

 

 

$

79,170

 

 

$

285,815

 

 

$

306,280

 

Purchases of property, equipment and software

 

(11,010

)

 

 

(5,997

)

 

 

(37,347

)

 

 

(26,847

)

Free cash flow

$

59,963

 

 

$

73,173

 

 

$

248,468

 

 

$

279,433

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net cash used in investing activities

$

(42,826

)

 

$

(8,219

)

 

$

(77,266

)

 

$

(54,684

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net cash used in financing activities

$

(70,795

)

 

$

(63,546

)

 

$

(303,802

)

 

$

(246,778

)

 

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250213220518/en/

Investor Relations Contact: Kate Krieger ir@yelp.com

Press Contact: Amber Albrecht press@yelp.com