Clue 1 · The Basics
U.S. consumer internet company · mid-cap · listed on NYSE · headquartered in San Francisco.
Clue 2 · The Numbers
Annual revenue around $1.3 billion, almost entirely from advertising sold to local businesses — think restaurants, plumbers, and dentists desperate for customers.
Clue 3 · The History
Founded in 2004 by former PayPal employees, it started as an email referral service before pivoting hard into something far more opinionated.
Clue 4 · The Secret
Its entire empire rests on user-written reviews — millions of them — which has also made it a lightning rod for accusations of burying bad reviews to squeeze ad dollars from small businesses.
Clue 5 · The Lore
Google tried to buy it for roughly $500 million back in 2009, got turned down, and then built a competing product — a decision that still haunts shareholders.
Clue 6 · The Giveaway
One star or five stars, every local business lives and dies by its rating here — and the angry review about cold soup you left in 2014 is probably still up.