Speaker 1: Hi everyone, I'm Emily Changing. This is Bloomberg Studio one
Speaker 1: point Oh. He YELP CEO Jeremy Stoppelman is one of
Speaker 1: the most recognizable faces of Silicon Valley, going all the
Speaker 1: way back to the PayPal mafia. Since he left PayPal
Speaker 1: and started Yelp in two thousand four, the site has
Speaker 1: become the go to for raves, rants, and recommendations. Chances are,
Speaker 1: if it's a business down the street from you, it's
Speaker 1: got a Yelp page. But the coronavirus pandemic dealta devastating
Speaker 1: blow as thousands of businesses across the country were forced
Speaker 1: to shut down. Yelp laid off a thousand of its
Speaker 1: own employees. Now with a vaccine in sight, but virus
Speaker 1: uncertainty is still ahead, Yelp serves as a sort of
Speaker 1: mirror to the help of American business. Still, it's not
Speaker 1: COVID that Stoppelman is most worried about. It's the growing
Speaker 1: shadow of Google. In this edition of Bloomberg Studio one
Speaker 1: point Oh, Yelp co founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman take
Speaker 1: me back to March. The pandemic hits and the lights
Speaker 1: go out, literally at thousands of small businesses across the
Speaker 1: United States. As the person who runs the most prominent
Speaker 1: platform for small businesses in the country, what was that
Speaker 1: moment like for you? Probably the best word is terror. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it was a scary moment, I think obviously
Speaker 1: for America, for small businesses, and especially for Yelp, because
Speaker 1: we're away to find great local businesses, and you know,
Speaker 1: the first thing crossing my mind is, you know, are
Speaker 1: people are gonna still buy advertising? Like our all business
Speaker 1: is going to be affected or just a portion we
Speaker 1: had gone through to you know, I was CEO in
Speaker 1: two thousand eight when we had that major recession, and
Speaker 1: so I knew that Yelp as a company should be resilient,
Speaker 1: but I had never faced anything remotely like a pandemic
Speaker 1: where every business is potentially affected by shut on. So
Speaker 1: it was a very scary moment for for me and
Speaker 1: for the company. Did reviews come to its standstill? Did
Speaker 1: advertising stop? We certainly took a pretty big hit in
Speaker 1: advertising dollars of people pause their campaigns. Uh. You know, Fortunately,
Speaker 1: we had functionality that allowed them to set a future date,
Speaker 1: and so we encourage people to you know, set a
Speaker 1: resumed date for their advertising months later, perhaps as the
Speaker 1: pandemic has passed had passed, or at least when the
Speaker 1: panic would have subsided. Um. And you know, our focus
Speaker 1: a YELP was really getting employees ready to work from home,
Speaker 1: getting people out of offices. This is all, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of late February, we were you know, it hit
Speaker 1: our radars. Hey, this is coming. We need to get
Speaker 1: you know, salespeople at home. All of our sales people
Speaker 1: have desktop computers in an office, Like, how do we
Speaker 1: get them equipped to try and work out of their
Speaker 1: home and you know, keep the company running. And so
Speaker 1: there was a lot of operational challenges transitioning people to
Speaker 1: work from home and getting ready to try and adapt
Speaker 1: to this extreme crisis. So fast forward to fall. Yelp
Speaker 1: shares spike on news of the early success of the
Speaker 1: Fiser vaccine and if everything works out, that could mean
Speaker 1: the economy opens faster. That's good for small businesses, that's good.
Speaker 1: Free yelp. How optimistic are you? None of us have
Speaker 1: been through a pandemic before, so we can't know everything.
Speaker 1: But you know, I can't say that in the last quarter,
Speaker 1: you know, things really had had come back. Economic activity
Speaker 1: had picked up. Um, you know, we were seeing people
Speaker 1: starting to dine at restaurants obviously, you know, with the
Speaker 1: better weather where we have weren't quite into winter yet,
Speaker 1: people were returning to restaurants. Home and local services as
Speaker 1: people spent more time at home really has held up
Speaker 1: throughout the pandemic. We've really come back in a big way,
Speaker 1: faster than even you know, we were hoping for. And
Speaker 1: with the with the vaccine potentially arriving and starting to
Speaker 1: get out there, I think, you know, we can we
Speaker 1: can finally say, hey, there is light at the end
Speaker 1: of this tunnel. You know. That's been the scariest thing
Speaker 1: about the whole crisis is we had hoped that a
Speaker 1: vaccine would arrive, But actually knowing that that one is
Speaker 1: there and that it's actually effective, I think is very exciting. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, certainly for for us at y'all, hopefully for
Speaker 1: lots of in the minds of small business owners, and
Speaker 1: you know, the rest of the world is is very happy,
Speaker 1: I think to hear that news. So what are you
Speaker 1: expecting to see over the holidays, given that we're going
Speaker 1: into winter cold and flu season, potential spike in COVID cases.
Speaker 1: We're already seeing hospitalization surge, and we know that people
Speaker 1: aren't going to be traveling and out there shopping and
Speaker 1: eating out like they normally would. I mean it's hard.
Speaker 1: I'm not currently contemplating national shutdowns where everyone is frozen
Speaker 1: in place like they were, you know, kind of the
Speaker 1: March April time frame. I think people will have to
Speaker 1: be cautious. You know, in in restaurant dining will probably
Speaker 1: be curtailed or very limited, depending on you know, the
Speaker 1: situation in that particular region. But I think you know,
Speaker 1: again for for yelps business, uh, you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of it is buoyed by the home local sector, which
Speaker 1: is done really well. As people are home. You know,
Speaker 1: things happen, your roof leaks, You've got to get that fixed.
Speaker 1: Your toilet clogs, well, your whole family is help. You know,
Speaker 1: your your kids are possibly doing the remote schooling there.
Speaker 1: You've got to get that thing fixed. Um and uh.
Speaker 1: And so those services, those service providers will continue to
Speaker 1: do well and will continue to spend to acquire leads
Speaker 1: from sites like out Now. You regularly release these economic
Speaker 1: impact reports, and from what I can tell, by the
Speaker 1: end of summer, you found that a hundred sixty thousand
Speaker 1: businesses had closed on YELP. Where does that number stand now?
Speaker 1: What are businesses telling you about how they're doing? Region
Speaker 1: to region? We have seen, you know, businesses, lots of
Speaker 1: businesses reopen that were temporarily closed. I think the numbers
Speaker 1: around two twenty thousand of the temporarily closed businesses have
Speaker 1: opened back up again, which is a great sign. Uh.
Speaker 1: And also from a new business standpoint, especially in the
Speaker 1: restaurant and food sector, we're seeing new business openings at
Speaker 1: levels that are in line with so you know, that's
Speaker 1: one really inspiring thing showing kind of the resilience of
Speaker 1: American entrepreneurship is that businesses are really you know, new
Speaker 1: new entrepreneurs are still being born in this environment, which
Speaker 1: is is incredible. I think it just shows incredible tenacity
Speaker 1: and bodes well for the economy as we start thinking
Speaker 1: about one and beyond. Now. Early on in the pandemic,
Speaker 1: yelped laid off a thousand people. You furloughed a bit
Speaker 1: more than that. Where does staffing stand now. At the
Speaker 1: start of the pandemic, obviously, you know, we saw advertising
Speaker 1: revenue dropping very rapidly. We had to make some very
Speaker 1: tough calls around our people uh, you know people that that, uh,
Speaker 1: we're incredible employees for us, and it was a very
Speaker 1: difficult moment. We had to lay off a thousand people,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, we also furloughed about a thousand people
Speaker 1: as well, and you know, that set us into a
Speaker 1: that that put us into a stable position to ride
Speaker 1: out sort of the immediate impact of the pandemic and
Speaker 1: whatever economic damage you know, would result. And four months
Speaker 1: later we were actually in a position to be able
Speaker 1: to bring back all of the extent offers back to
Speaker 1: almost all of the furloughed employees, and so that was
Speaker 1: a great feeling. Obviously, it's very tough, you know, to
Speaker 1: let anybody go, but we had made a commitment to
Speaker 1: these furloughed employees and so it's great to see so
Speaker 1: many of them back working at Yalpin, and many of
Speaker 1: which are here today. Now. The pandemic, as you alluded to,
Speaker 1: has become very very political, and I'm wondering what your
Speaker 1: take is on Joe Biden's election. Are you at all
Speaker 1: concerned that his safety first approach? Could you know, mean
Speaker 1: the economy opens more slowly? I think we you know,
Speaker 1: we have to be guided by science. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: we we have to take a dispassionate look. We have
Speaker 1: to take politics out of it and say, what, you know,
Speaker 1: we can't really have a great economy if everyone's cowering,
Speaker 1: you know, from impacts of the pandemic, or hospitals are
Speaker 1: getting overloaded with cases. So we just have to take
Speaker 1: a sensible approach. We have to listen to the scientists
Speaker 1: if they're telling us that, you know, wearing masks is
Speaker 1: going to you know, diminish the am packed to the pandemic,
Speaker 1: that we should all be wearing masks. It's very straightforward.
Speaker 1: It shouldn't be a political issue. It's it's very frustrating
Speaker 1: that it has been. And I think that costs us
Speaker 1: valuable time and even more importantly, causes, you know, costs
Speaker 1: us health and even lives. It seems like the next
Speaker 1: stimulus package might be more scaled back. Are you concerned
Speaker 1: about a divided government meaning that small businesses aren't going
Speaker 1: to get the help they need. I think the FED
Speaker 1: chair has been pretty clear that, you know, businesses need supports,
Speaker 1: especially small businesses need support. And I think the initial
Speaker 1: stimulus package was a positive and you know, we've been
Speaker 1: all waiting and hoping for another one, and I think,
Speaker 1: you know, we shouldn't just have socialism for big companies
Speaker 1: where they can borrow endlessly with cheap debt from the
Speaker 1: you know, powered by the Fed. We we should extend
Speaker 1: the helping hand to all these great small business owners
Speaker 1: that are just trying to get by. This is my
Speaker 1: conversation with Yelp CEO and co founder jeremy'st Doppleman. Up
Speaker 1: next inside his decision to turn down an offer from
Speaker 1: Google was a call from Steve Jobs, the deciding factor.
Speaker 1: Plus Stoppleman wis in on the antitrust lawsuit now facing Google,
Speaker 1: a company he's not shy about calling a monopoly. I'm
Speaker 1: Emily Chang, and this is Bloomberg Studio. At one point
Speaker 1: out we could spend a lot of time talking about
Speaker 1: old stories. You've been in Silicon Valley a long time.
Speaker 1: You were part of the early PayPal team. Um, but
Speaker 1: there's one old story that I really do want to
Speaker 1: ask you about, which is that Google tried to buy
Speaker 1: Yelp back in two thousand nine for over half a
Speaker 1: billion dollars and you turn them down. Explain how that
Speaker 1: played out? Well, and you know, I think that Yelp
Speaker 1: was doing something really positive which was growing quickly, gathering
Speaker 1: all this useful information about local businesses that frankly no
Speaker 1: other UH site had UM and I think Google UH
Speaker 1: saw that that maps was of growing importance to them
Speaker 1: UM and was interested in Yelp, and we initially had
Speaker 1: a partnership, but ultimately I think, you know, Google wasn't
Speaker 1: satisfied with that partnership and wanted to get into the
Speaker 1: business themselves. UM and so then you know, there was
Speaker 1: a back and forth where they had some interest in Yelp,
Speaker 1: but ultimately it didn't work out. I think we we
Speaker 1: saw things differently, and you know, I think that that
Speaker 1: was good. Uh. It allowed yelled to stay independent, to
Speaker 1: grow on its own UM and UH. And frankly, I
Speaker 1: think I've I've been able to develop as a CEO
Speaker 1: quite a bit as well, So I think it's been
Speaker 1: good for me personally. Now, as the story goes, Steve Jobs,
Speaker 1: who was obviously running Apple at the time, Google's biggest competitor,
Speaker 1: called you to convince you to turn it down. Did
Speaker 1: that really happen? It did. Yeah, it was a bit
Speaker 1: of a surreal moment. I'd call it probably a career highlight,
Speaker 1: still peak, a peak highlight for me when an assistant
Speaker 1: of mine, you know, broke into a meeting and like
Speaker 1: tapped me on the shoulder and literally slipped up post
Speaker 1: it note that said Steve Jobs is on the line,
Speaker 1: and so I ran out of the meeting and then
Speaker 1: you know, picked up the phone, and of course it
Speaker 1: wasn't Steve Jobs. It was Steve Jobs assistant was on
Speaker 1: the line, And so then I was waiting for Steve Jobs,
Speaker 1: who did ultimately get on the phone, and he had
Speaker 1: some not so nice things to say about Google and
Speaker 1: something nice things to say about Yelp and said, you know,
Speaker 1: he loved Yelp, and then we should keep going. And
Speaker 1: you know, if it was a money thing, then we
Speaker 1: should be talking to Apple, not not Google. But we
Speaker 1: should just keep doing what we're doing. And you know,
Speaker 1: I thought that was good advice. So fast forward to today.
Speaker 1: Yelp is now a two billion dollar public company, but
Speaker 1: also Google is now your biggest competitor. Did you make
Speaker 1: the right call? Well? I think I did. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I think Yelp continues to serve on its mission, which
Speaker 1: is connecting people with great local businesses, and it's been
Speaker 1: a really rewarding journey and I think lots of people
Speaker 1: find yea still incredibly value lable. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: over a hundred million people come to Yelp every single month,
Speaker 1: uh and steer themselves to a great local business. So
Speaker 1: I think it's it's going well. So the Department of
Speaker 1: Justice has recently sued Google over antitrust taking on Google.
Speaker 1: Competing against Google is no joke for for any business.
Speaker 1: What was your reaction to the suit. We We've been
Speaker 1: working on on this topic for a very long time.
Speaker 1: So there was a good feeling, I would say in
Speaker 1: the Yelp office, because we've been kind of shouting from
Speaker 1: the rooftops for a very long time that you know,
Speaker 1: there is a monopoly problem in this country, and in particular,
Speaker 1: there's a Google problem in this country. And Google, you know,
Speaker 1: has behaved illegally and uh you know has has leverages
Speaker 1: monopoly um in ways that are destructive to innovation and
Speaker 1: competition and that you know, it's bad for consumers, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, bad for small business owners. And so it
Speaker 1: was great to see some you know, some early validation
Speaker 1: of that from the d o J. Now we've all
Speaker 1: seen the increasing number of Google reviews and you know,
Speaker 1: yelps main complaint that Google favors its own reviews over
Speaker 1: yours isn't actually the core of the case. Are you
Speaker 1: at all concerned that your concerns might get passed over?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's hard to say where the case goes
Speaker 1: right now, because the state A G s will be uh,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of bringing their own cases and presumably
Speaker 1: it gets consolidated. So it's hard to know the exact
Speaker 1: scope of the case. I think, you know, the the
Speaker 1: early signs that you know from our perspective are positive.
Speaker 1: And you know, again there's bipartisan support for really scrutinizing
Speaker 1: Google and taking a look at their behavior over the
Speaker 1: last decade. You look at like television over the last
Speaker 1: forty fifty years, and it's a highly regulated industry. You know,
Speaker 1: you look at radio, highly regulated. Even even going back
Speaker 1: to movies, there were antitrust cases that made a big
Speaker 1: difference in the distribution of of of films. And so
Speaker 1: why is it that technology should be completely immune to that,
Speaker 1: especially these new you know, sort of the Google generation
Speaker 1: of technology companies. Why shouldn't you know, Congress exercise its power.
Speaker 1: Why shouldn't the DJ investigate? Why shouldn't the FTC investigate
Speaker 1: you told sixty minutes back in. If I were starting
Speaker 1: out today, I would have no shot of building Yelp.
Speaker 1: That opportunity has been closed off by Google and their approach.
Speaker 1: If you provide great content in one of these categories
Speaker 1: that's lucrative to Google and seen as potentially threatening, they
Speaker 1: will snuff you out, They will make you disappear, they
Speaker 1: will bury you. Has Google continued to try to bury
Speaker 1: Yelp since that time? It's an easy thing to test
Speaker 1: for yourself. You could just you know, do essentially any
Speaker 1: search with local intent and then see how far down
Speaker 1: the page you have to go to get to any
Speaker 1: kind of organic result, especially in you know, a category
Speaker 1: that's particularly lucrative from an advertise, from a SMB advertising standpoint,
Speaker 1: I mean they've they've really tried to maximize the revenue,
Speaker 1: and do think so have have put the consumer in
Speaker 1: the back seat, And I think that's a real problem.
Speaker 1: But then also it's stifles innovation because if if it's
Speaker 1: basically there's no organic content anymore, there isn't really that
Speaker 1: incentive for creators to try and create new and interesting
Speaker 1: websites collect information from users. I think, you know, it's
Speaker 1: quite sad, and I think if you talk to the
Speaker 1: venture capital community you'll hear that as well. There just
Speaker 1: isn't as much interest in ideas that are powered by
Speaker 1: search engine optimization, where you know, you create really wonderful
Speaker 1: content and then Google or other search engines drive you
Speaker 1: traffic like it's just Google now, and if it's a
Speaker 1: lucrative vertical, they're going to try and suck up all
Speaker 1: the revenue. Now. President elect Biden hasn't detailed his thoughts
Speaker 1: on antitrust yet, but we know that the Obama administration
Speaker 1: was fairly close to to Silicon Valley and Google in particular.
Speaker 1: How would you like Biden to weigh in on antitrust?
Speaker 1: You know, what do you want lawmakers to do? Should
Speaker 1: should Google be broken up? Yeah? I think all we
Speaker 1: can ask for is independent thought. Um, And so you're
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right that. Unfortunately, the Obama administration has a
Speaker 1: very bad record when it comes to antitrust enforcement and
Speaker 1: especially Google scrutiny. I think Google's lobbyist was the number
Speaker 1: one lobbyist in the White House by visits, and so
Speaker 1: that that's been widely reported. Uh. And even as the
Speaker 1: FTC was purportedly investigating there was seemingly you know, back
Speaker 1: channel communication with Google, which you know is very sad
Speaker 1: uh to to learn of, And so I would hope
Speaker 1: and I think there's some indication that Biden is going
Speaker 1: to take a more independent view of this, and I
Speaker 1: think we'll have to see, you know, who's involved in
Speaker 1: the administration, who's in the cabinet, you know, who are
Speaker 1: the people around Biden. Uh. You know, My personal thought
Speaker 1: is like, somehow we have to get Elizabeth Warren in there,
Speaker 1: because she's been particularly strong on you know, hammering home
Speaker 1: the point that monopolies are not good for the economy,
Speaker 1: they're not good for innovation, they're not good for consumers,
Speaker 1: and so we need someone like at with a really
Speaker 1: strong message and a strong independent streak as well. Now,
Speaker 1: all of that said, some businesses have complained that Yelp
Speaker 1: reviews skew more negative. How do you respond to, you know,
Speaker 1: this complaint from businesses who you know might prefer Google
Speaker 1: because they see that they have more positive reviews there.
Speaker 1: We try to be you know, the most independent, create
Speaker 1: a level playing field for businesses, and you know that
Speaker 1: frustrates businesses that, frankly on other platforms, are used to
Speaker 1: getting what they want, which is, you know, being able
Speaker 1: to ask their friends to write reviews for them being
Speaker 1: five stars, and in fact the data supports that. So
Speaker 1: the FTC, an economist there, recently put out a paper
Speaker 1: that talked about the review distribution on the various platforms
Speaker 1: and Yelp actually has the most balanced review system, which
Speaker 1: is very validating. That feels great to me because that's
Speaker 1: what we're trying to achieve, is just a mirror of
Speaker 1: the real world. You're listening to my conversation with the
Speaker 1: CEO and co founder of Yelp, Jeremy Stoppelman. Coming up,
Speaker 1: Stoppelman was a key player in the famed PayPal mafia.
Speaker 1: His lessons for up and coming entrepreneurs and vision for
Speaker 1: the future of Yelp, post pandemic and in a new normal.
Speaker 1: I'm Emily Chang. This is Bloomberg Studio one point. Oh,
Speaker 1: stay with us. I do want to take a quick
Speaker 1: step back and talk about how you got here, because
Speaker 1: you know, it really is so fascinating. You're an engineer.
Speaker 1: You worked at x dot com back in the day,
Speaker 1: the online bank that was started by Elon Musk, which
Speaker 1: merged with PayPal. What are some of the biggest lessons
Speaker 1: you've taken from that time in your life and those
Speaker 1: people whom I imagine are still in your life today.
Speaker 1: One of the big takeaways from PayPal was just how
Speaker 1: much you could do even if you had no experience.
Speaker 1: And so I I joined x dot com, which you
Speaker 1: know eventually merged with with PayPal when I was twenty two,
Speaker 1: I think, um, and very quickly I became an engineering
Speaker 1: manager maybe a year and a half later, two years later,
Speaker 1: and it ultimately rose and into the executive ranks there
Speaker 1: on the engineering side. And think about it was kind
Speaker 1: of preposterous that those folks would give me so much
Speaker 1: responsibility so early in my career. But the fact that
Speaker 1: we we somehow pulled it off and created a successful
Speaker 1: consumer brand UH and payment site UH that ended up
Speaker 1: being really critical to eBay and then ultimately now as
Speaker 1: a payment service that so many of us use, I
Speaker 1: think validates that, Like, it's not all about experience, A
Speaker 1: lot of it is great determination, creativity, innovation, all all
Speaker 1: of those good things. UM. And so I've tried to
Speaker 1: bring that with me to Yelp frankly, and we tried
Speaker 1: to make sure that people have fantastic careers we have
Speaker 1: a lot of growth from within when it comes to promotions,
Speaker 1: and we have a lot of home grown you know
Speaker 1: now senior employees. So it's really validating to see people
Speaker 1: step up and and take on more responsibility over time.
Speaker 1: Where do you fall on the importance of culture, because
Speaker 1: it seems like, you know, there's a group of CEOs
Speaker 1: and Silicon Valley who who seem to think it's important
Speaker 1: in others who seem to think it's all about growth. Well,
Speaker 1: I think you want both. Uh it's you know, I
Speaker 1: think it's hard to be a company and not have
Speaker 1: robust growth. Uh. It just fundamentally is difficult, especially in
Speaker 1: the technology industry where things change so fast. So if
Speaker 1: you're not growing, then you're probably not keeping up and
Speaker 1: then you know, eventually you fall over. But I think
Speaker 1: we also see that culture is important, especially in recruiting
Speaker 1: the top talent that you need to succeed here in
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley is is you need to have a great culture. Um,
Speaker 1: you need to be on top of things what's going
Speaker 1: on in your organization, because if you don't, somebody else
Speaker 1: will will be good at that, and then people will
Speaker 1: flock to that company. That that is also high growth.
Speaker 1: There's always you know, other shiny new objects out there.
Speaker 1: It's you know, you want to deliver. I think on
Speaker 1: both dimensions as a CEO. There's been some reporting and
Speaker 1: Business Insider that Yelp has an aggressive sales culture. What's
Speaker 1: been your response to that. I mean, we're one of
Speaker 1: one of the most highly scrutinized sales teams I think
Speaker 1: in the history of of local sales teams. I mean
Speaker 1: for many, many years. Uh, you know, business owners, for instance,
Speaker 1: would accuse us of extortion because they claim that you
Speaker 1: could take down Yelp reviews if you paid us. That
Speaker 1: was never true, and so any individual anecdotal accusation I
Speaker 1: think you have to take with a grain of salt.
Speaker 1: We do have thousands of salespeople, and so is every
Speaker 1: conversation going to be perfect? Absolutely not. But you know,
Speaker 1: we have systems in place to ensure that that the
Speaker 1: conversations are the ones that we expect, are empathetic, are thoughtful,
Speaker 1: and the vast, vast majority of those conversations are great. Now,
Speaker 1: I've interviewed many folks on the PayPal mafia over the years,
Speaker 1: and they all seem to agree that, you know, very smart,
Speaker 1: but also very lucky and very lucky to have each other.
Speaker 1: If you are a woman or a person of color
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley these days, you know, what's your advice?
Speaker 1: How do you break through if you don't have that
Speaker 1: kind of a network. I mean, I think Silicon Valley
Speaker 1: has gotten better on this dimension. I think there's a
Speaker 1: growing awareness of the need to create opportunities for people
Speaker 1: of color, for women. Uh, and so I you know,
Speaker 1: I would make sure that you're aligned with a company
Speaker 1: that that does care about these things. I think help
Speaker 1: Is is a company that does care about these things,
Speaker 1: that that cares a great deal about diversity. And a
Speaker 1: lot of these companies are now publishing, you know, annually
Speaker 1: their numbers on how are things improving? You know, are
Speaker 1: they making progress? Do they have something to show? And
Speaker 1: I think Yelp has consistently made progress on that dimension.
Speaker 1: And then it's all public, it's it's published annually in
Speaker 1: our reports. Um, and so that that's probably my best
Speaker 1: advices is you know, these are talented people. They do
Speaker 1: have a lot of options. To make sure you choose
Speaker 1: an option that that supports you and makes you know,
Speaker 1: it makes you feel valued. Because there's so many great
Speaker 1: companies in Silicon Valley, like, don't waste your time on
Speaker 1: someone that that doesn't value you. When you look ahead,
Speaker 1: let's say five years from now and the pandemic is
Speaker 1: hopefully in the rear view mirror, what is going to
Speaker 1: be the biggest source of growth. Well, I think we
Speaker 1: have a lot of opportunity to better monetize yell We
Speaker 1: talked about how only about of our leads are monetized
Speaker 1: right now, and so we'd love to see that percentage
Speaker 1: drift up because there's just so much incredible value flowing
Speaker 1: through Yelp accruing to business owners, and we want to
Speaker 1: give a boost to the people that are paying us.
Speaker 1: We want to help our advertisers get more leads, uh,
Speaker 1: And so that's a big focus for the company. And
Speaker 1: also we just want to build out our presence in
Speaker 1: home and local and some of these areas that the
Speaker 1: people may not be as aware of, Like I think
Speaker 1: across the country, everyone knows Yelp as a restaurant site,
Speaker 1: but how do we shift that perception and really, you know,
Speaker 1: drive home the message that Yelp is is for anything
Speaker 1: that you need locally, any service provider, any local business
Speaker 1: you should be turning to YELP because it has, as
Speaker 1: we talked about, you know, the most balanced rating system,
Speaker 1: the most useful and trustworthy information and says, skip that
Speaker 1: whole Google box and just come to the ELPAP. That's
Speaker 1: a great place to end at. Jeremy Stoppelman, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us today on Studio one point. Oh.
Speaker 1: It's been great to have you. Thanks for having me.
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