Tag Archives: yelp

Apple Building Siri-Based Rival To Amazon Echo

Apple ( AAPL ) reportedly is making a voice-response personal-assistant device to take on Amazon ( AMZN ) Echo and similar room appliances. The device will leverage Apple’s Siri application from its mobile devices, The Information reported Tuesday . The device will have a microphone and speaker that people can use to turn on music, get news headlines and make other spoken requests, the news website said. Apple is expected to release a software development kit to open up the device to third-party developers. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company will unveil the project at its Worldwide Developers Conference, which runs June 13-17 in San Francisco. Siri today offers limited third-party support, including services such as Yelp ( YELP ), Rotten Tomatoes and Shazam. Amazon largely created the market for always-listening digital assistants with Echo, introduced in late 2014. The e-commerce giant released an SDK last year for Alexa, the voice assistant that powers its Echo speakers. Last week, Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google unveiled a conversational assistant that builds on its Google Now service and will support third-party services. It will sell a voice-activated speaker called Google Home later this year. Other digital assistant services include Microsoft ’s ( MSFT ) Cortana and Facebook ’s ( FB ) M. RELATED: Google echoes Amazon’s Echo, opens new virtual-reality door Amazon.com Has Likely Sold 3 Million Echo Speakers To Date

Yelp Stock Jumps As Q1 Earnings, Revenue Beat On Local Ads

Yelp ( YELP ) Q1 earnings fell from the year-earlier period but beat expectations, while the Internet firm also raised current-quarter and full-year revenue guidance ahead of analyst views, sending shares up. San Francisco-based Yelp late Thursday said it earned 8 cents per share minus items in the March quarter, down from 10 cents in Q1 2015. But analysts had modeled a 16-cent per-share loss ex items. Revenue rose 34% to $158.6 million, ahead of analyst consensus of $156 million. Yelp stock, which in February hit a nearly four-year low of 14.53, was up 11% in premarket trading Friday, near 24. Yelp stock had been down 26% in 2016 as of Thursday’s close and down 56% from 12 months earlier. Yelp has a weak IBD Composite Rating of 24 out of a possible 99. Yelp connects consumers with a directory of local businesses, such as restaurants, boutiques, and household services, and users can post feedback on the services. “Yelp reported a solid quarter driven by local (ads) where revenue growth accelerated on better-than-expected ad budget fulfillment and above-average salesperson productivity,” said Brian Fitzgerald, an analyst at Jefferies, in a research note. Q2 revenue guidance of $167 million to $171 million edged Wall Street estimates of $168 million at the midpoint, which would be up 26% from Q2 2016. And the midpoint for Q2 EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) guidance of $21 million to $25 million also beat the Street’s estimate of $21 million. For 2016, Yelp hiked its revenue guidance to $690 million to $702 million from $685 million-$700 million against the Street’s $691 million expectation. Yelp had sales of $550 million in 2015. “Although Yelp’s Q1 results demonstrated an impressive pivot from brand ads to direct-sold national campaigns, the company will likely need to show a few more quarters of local advertising strength to fully win back the confidence of the Street,” John Egbert, an analyst at Stifel, said in a report. “We are encouraged by the first-quarter results, as it appears Yelp has largely completed the migration of its core business from a CPM (cost per impression) product to a performance-based cost-per-click (CPC) without a material impact on its financial results,” Ralph Schackart, an analyst at William Blair, wrote in a research report.

Personal Chef Booking Platform Kitchit Shuts Down

Personal chef booking platform Kitchit has announced that it will cease operations Friday. IBD first reported the impending closure on April 22 . At the time, CEO Brendan Marshall denied that the company had plans to close. When asked about shut down, Marshall referred IBD to remarks on the company’s website but declined further comment. According to the website statement, Kitchit was earning 30% to 40% gross profit margins, and monthly growth was 30%. The company said that it served 100,000 customers. Kitchit competed with the fast-growing swath of food-related tech companies, which offer a range of services including on-demand restaurant delivery and ready-to-be-cooked meals. The company had raised over $8 million from investors such as Javelin Venture Partners, which could not be immediately reached for comment. E-commerce leader  Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and its Prime Now unit have a restaurant delivery service that has been slowly rolling out across the U.S. Digital cash register and payments processor Square ( SQ ) offers a competing service, Caviar. GrubHub ( GRUB ) and Yelp ( YELP ) also have food delivery services. Food tech companies have been struggling of late. Startups such as SpoonRocket, Dinner Lab and Kitchensurfing have all shut their doors in recent months.