Apple Maps To Feature Yelp Check-Ins

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Apple Maps To Feature Yelp Check-Ins
Apple launched Apple Maps application iOS 6 software during the opening gala at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
At the conference, Scott Forstall showed Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP) on Apple’s new Maps app, but he passed on mentioning about Yelp check-ins. Yelp Check-ins feature is designed to let users notify their friends of their whereabouts according to materials apple distributed to software developers.
Apple Maps were launched with an aim of replacing Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s, Google Maps. The software will allow users to communicate through Yelp without exiting the map and opening a new app, the report notes.

Yelp is essentially a website that lets people review various types of businesses. In 2010, Yelp Check-in was launched for smartphones, with a strategy of helping businesses to establish loyalty with their customers. Yelp’s new partnership with Apple maps could give the company an opportunity to compete with Check-ins industry leaders, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) and Foursquare Labs Inc.

The app developer kit handed to developers earlier this month includes screen shots of Yelp check-ins within Apple Maps.

Additionally, the mobile check-ins use GPS enabled smartphones to allow users to share with their friends, events and places they have visited, making it possible to display the number of people who visited a certain checkpoint.

9to5Mac notes that users can then publish these check-ins through social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. It also suggests that Yelp is trying to increase profits from advertisements, which made up to 70% of the company’s revenue in the financial year 2011.

According to research done by Pew Research Center earlier this year,  Check-ins are used by 18% of adult smartphone owners.

Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, and Vince Sollitto, a spokesman for San Francisco- based Yelp declined to comment on the matter.

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