After IPO, Yelp’s first quarter revenue jumps 66 percent over last year

Yelp made $27.4 million in revenue during the first of 2012, a 66 percent jump from last year, the company reported in its first quarterly earnings call Wednesday.

Exactly two months ago Wednesday, the business-reviews site debuted on the public market. During its first day of trading, the company was valued at $1.43 billion, about 17 times the amount of Yelp’s total revenue in 2011.

Now the company is reporting $27.4 million in revenue for quarter one 2011. Yelp beat analysts’ predictions by almost $2 million, which were set at $25.3 million.

“Our initial public offering added $114 million to our balance sheet,” Yelp chief financial officer Rob Krolik said in the earnings statement.

However, the company’s losses were up significantly up this quarter over last year, at $9.8 million. That’s already more than half of Yelp’s total net loss for 2011, which was $16.7 million. In comparison, Yelp reported a net loss of $2.8 million for the 2011 first quarter. The Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2012 was approximately $1 million, compared to a loss of $880,000 for the first quarter of 2011, Yelp reported.

Still, Yelp seems happy with its earnings. Chief executive Jeremy Stoppelman said in the earnings statement that he is pleased with the company’s performance post-IPO.

Eleven new markets were added to the Yelp universe this year, including Antwerp, Brussels, and Oklahoma City. Those new cities seem to have helped boost the amount of reviews, active business accounts, and monthly unique visitors for Yelp. Total reviews on Yelp grew 59 percent from 2011 to 27.6 million reviews, and business accounts were up 117 percent over last year at 27,300. In addition, 71.4 million people visit the site each month and 6.3 million are using the Yelp mobile app each month.

Yelp expects its revenue to be between $29 million and $31 million for 2012’s second quarter, which started April 1.

Yelp buttons image via Flickr user Ed Kwon