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.
