Yelp Jumps on Delivery Rollout
NEW YORK (
) --
Yelp
(YELP) - Get Report
shares continued their extraordinary 2013 run Tuesday, gaining 6.45% to $37.16, as the company announced a new service for food delivery and pickup.
In an update to its
Apple
(AAPL) - Get Report
iOS app, Yelp introduced Yelp Platform, which allows users to order food directly from a select number of restaurants. The service is powered by
delivery.com
and
Eat24
, and allows users to order food straight from the app either for delivery, or pickup.
"In the coming months, we'll add categories like spas, yoga studios, salons and dentist appointments starting with Booker, Intuit's Demandforce and MindBody," Yelp said on its
blog
. "Consumers can expect us to add more categories in the future."
The company noted that the iOS update is available immediately, but would be coming soon to
Google's
(GOOG) - Get Report
Android as well.
Yelp has been the beneficiary of some
recently. Pacific Crest analyst Evan Wilson initiated coverage on the San Francisco-based Yelp, starting shares at "outperform" with a $40 price target. Wilson noted the company is poised to benefit from the coming boom in mobile advertising, with its 39 million user-based reviews. "The depth of its reviews is a very valuable commodity and difficult to replicate," Wilson wrote in the report. "Yelp's biggest innovation was combining a user review site with community features and a modern desktop and mobile interface."
Shares have been aided by the strong growth the company has experienced, as more users take to the service and more features are added. First-quarter revenue rose 68% year-over-year to $46.1 million, as Yelp's active local business accounts climbed 63% compared to the prior year's quarter, reaching approximately 45,000.
data by
--
Written by Chris Ciaccia in New York
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