英语词汇yelp与名为Yelp的美国商户点评网Yelp不同，它起源于16世纪，最初意为“自吹自擂”。经过多年演变，它的意思逐渐演变，如今已经变得迥然不同：按照《简明牛津英语词典》（Concise OED）的释义，它表示“短促、尖利的叫声，尤其是由于疼痛或受惊所致”。

    眼下，Yelp这家公司正在积极筹备上市，Yelp这个词含义演变所需要经历的时间跨度似乎会小得多。Yelp成立于2004年。它发展迅猛，很快就超越另一家点评网站Citysearch，成为消费者点评饭店和本地商户的首选。据称，它曾拒绝了谷歌公司（Google）高达5亿美元的收购出价，一心要实现自己的首次公开募股（IPO），这将使其市值达到20亿美元。这倒确实让Yelp有了大把的自吹自擂的资本。

    但是，一方面现在的股市动荡不安，另一方面，投资者也开始意识到，这些年轻的社交网络公司可能并不是那么炙手可热的投资对象，因此，IPO的前景可能将并不如Yelp所愿。上周，团购领域的领导公司Groupon和另一家近期上市的点评网站Angie's List的股价双双下挫，这就意味着市场对技术型公司IPO的热情可能正在消褪（而Facebook公司或许将于2012年4月进行IPO，它是属于自成体系的一类。）

    上周三天半的交易中，Groupon的股价下跌了36%，报收于16.75美元，大大低于其20美元的发行价。Angie's List下跌了15%，报收于13.5美元，仅比其11月16日的发行价略高50美分。2011年发行的同类IPO也业绩惨淡，流媒体音乐服务提供商Pandora的股价下挫16%，商务社交网站LinkedIn股价下跌了12%。而相比之下，尽管市场对欧洲的财政危机感到惶惶不安，但纳斯达克综合指数（Nasdaq Composite）仅下跌了5%。

    人们很容易对这些下跌做出过分解读。毕竟，上周由于感恩节放假，交易额规模不大，这也加剧了股价动荡。而Groupon由于突然成为做空者的最爱，它有望成为一支股价特别容易出现波动的股票。如果欧洲的局势能够稳定下来，或者如果另一家网络公司的IPO——比如说社交游戏公司Zynga——能很快强势首发，那么上周的低迷行情就可以被视为IPO市场的一个小小的插曲。

    而在某些方面，Yelp似乎与Groupon迥然不同。媒体对它即将IPO的消息关注有限，而Groupon则是媒体热议了好几个月的话题。Groupon现在给人的感觉就像当年的eBay，一时风光无限，却将很快迎来颓势。而在更大程度上，Yelp是一个稳定发展的组织，它能够持续多年经营。Groupon则是通过预先投资，在几年间实现了飞速发展，而Yelp则按部就班地实现着增长。

    此处是Yelp网站六年前的架构。它现在的样子基本照旧，只是当时仅有数千条评论。而今天，Yelp拥有2,200万条评论。不过，它也是花了好几年时间才发展到这样的规模，其诀窍就是：专注于反映用户和饭店的体验，而不是把力气花在大而无当的评价标准上。Yelp并不是那种迫不及待要赚快钱的公司。

    Unlike Yelp the company, "yelp" the word dates back to the 1500's, when its original meaning was "boasting". Over the years, it came to mean something quite different: "A short, sharp cry, especially of pain or alarm" as the Concise OED puts it.

    That downward trajectory seems to be playing out over a much shorter time span as Yelp the company gets ready to go public. Founded in 2004, Yelp soon sprinted past Citysearch as the premier site for customer reviews of restaurants and local businesses. The company reportedly spurned a $500 million offer from Google (GOOG), only to file for an IPO that could value the company at $2 billion. That wold give Yelp a lot to boast about.

    But that outcome may be derailed by a turbulent stock market and a growing sense among investors that the IPOs of young social-web startups may not be such hot investments after all. Groupon (GRPN), the leader in the group buying market, and Angie's List (ANGI), another user-review site that recently went public, fell last week, suggesting the appetite for tech IPOs may be waning. (Facebook, which may be targeting and April 2012 IPO, is in a category by itself.)

    In the three and a half days of trading last week, Groupon's stock fell 36% to $16.75, well below its $20 offering price. Angie's List fell 15% to $13.50, or 50 cents above its Nov. 16 offering price. Other IPOs in the class of 2011 fared poorly as Pandora (P) stock fell 16% and LinkedIn (LNKD) dropped 12%. The Nasdaq Composite, by contrast, declined 5% in a market jittery about the financial turmoil in Europe.

    It can be easy to read too much into these declines. After all, trading was light ahead of last week's Thanksgiving holiday, adding to volatility. And Groupon, an sudden favorite of short sellers, is looking to be an especially volatile stock. If things settle down in Europe, or if another web IPO -- say, Zynga -- has a strong debut soon, last week's gloom could be seen as a brief aberration in the IPO market.

    And in some ways, Yelp seems quite different from Groupon. Its IPO has received a moderate amount of coverage, while Groupon's was the subject of a passionate debate for months. Groupon feels like an eBay-like (EBAY) trend waiting to peter out. Yelp is more of a steady resource that could last for many years. While Groupon invested up front to grow quickly in a couple of years, Yelp nurtured its growth slowly.

    Here's an archive of Yelp's site six years ago. It looks much the same, only with a few thousand reviews. Today, Yelp has 22 million reviews, but it's taken several years to grow that big, focusing on the experience for users and restaurants rather than spectacular metrics. This is not a company in a rush to cash out.

    不过，仔细审视Yelp的IPO招股书会发现，这家公司其实与Groupon颇为神似，这可能会让众多投资者感到不安。其一，Yelp的财报始终是亏损状态。2011年的前9个月，它的运营亏损达到740万美元，相当于它这段时期4,030万美元营收的15%。迄今为止，Yelp的累计亏损已达到3,200万美元（而相比之下，Zynga公司同期的运营利润达到了10%）。

    收入增长缓慢，这是Groupon近期让人担忧的一大问题，但Yelp还不至于受到这一问题的严重困扰。2009年，Yelp的收入增长了113%。2010年，增长率放缓，降至85%，但2011年前9个月，这个数字仍然稳定地维持在80%。最近一个财季，Yelp的收入比上一财季增长了18%。而同期Groupon的增长率仅为为9%。虽然Yelp比Groupon的历史要长，它的连续增长率却是后者的两倍。

    不过，Yelp还面临一些Groupon所没有的问题。其一，它的运营成本持续上涨。上一财季，Yelp的销售和营销成本达到了总收入的67%，比上一财季的63%还高。同样的，产品研发成本从14%增至16%，行政成本从18%增至21%。

    尤其需要警惕的是，Yelp还没有产生现金流，其运营还不足以支撑其自身的开销。2011年的前9个月，运营产生的现金流是负值296,000美元，尽管与一年前负值640万美元相比，已经大幅下降。Groupon的现金流自2009年以来就始终是正值，而Yelp虽然即将上市，其运营却似乎完全是靠烧钱来维持。

    作为一家新创企业，Yelp广受欢迎，增长迅速，它需要筹集资本来实现未来的增长。但不幸的是，它多年亏损，历年来都无法从运营中产生现金流。这些情况表明，它现在进行IPO有些操之过急。鉴于市场近期对亏损赔钱的网络公司IPO热情不再，这对它来说实在不是好兆头。

    曾有一度，在难以捉摸的经济环境中，社交网络的美好前景让LinkedIn和Yelp这类公司似乎成了投资者的避风港，但这种美好时光也许已经不复存在。诸如Zynga这类能够盈利的公司在IPO市场上仍将受到热捧，而业绩欠佳的公司就很可能会不受待见，而是会被橡皮球一样被人踢来踢去。而期间发出的尖叫（yelp）不可能悦耳。

    译者：清远

    But a closer look at Yelp's IPO prospectus shows the company looks more Groupon-y than many investors would be comfortable with. For one thing, Yelp has consistently posted a loss. In the first nine months of 2011, it showed an operating loss of $7.4 million, equal to 15% of its $40.3 million revenue in that period. To date, Yelp has accumulated $32 million in losses. (Zynga, by contrast had a 10% operating margin in the first nine months of 2011.)

    Slowing revenue growth, one of Groupon's recent concerns, isn't afflicting Yelp so much. In 2009, Yelp's revenue grew by 113%. In 2010, the growth rate slowed somewhat to 85% but held steady at 80% for the first nine months of 2011. Yelp's most recent quarter saw revenue grow 18% from the previous quarter, compared with a 9% growth rate for Groupon. Although Yelp is older than Groupon, it's growing twice as fast sequentially.

    Still, Yelp faces some problems that Groupon doesn't. For one, its operating costs are rising. Yelp's sales and marketing costs were equal to 67% of its revenue last quarter, up from 63% in the previous quarter. Similarly, product-development costs rose to 16% of revenue from 14% and administrative costs rose to 21% from 18%.

    Even more alarming, Yelp has yet to generate cash flows. Its operations aren't yet financing themselves. Cash flows from operations were a negative $296,000 in the first nine months of 2011, although that figure was down from negative $6.4 million a year earlier. While Groupon has been cash-flow positive since 2009, Yelp's operations appear to be burning through cash even as it's going public.

    Yelp is a popular and growing startup that needs to raise capital to finance its future growth. Unfortunately, its years of losses and historical inability to generate cash from operations suggest the IPO is being rushed. That's too bad for the company, given the recent sense of disenchantment with money-losing web IPOs.

    For some time, the promise of the social web made companies like LinkedIn and Yelp seem like investor safe havens in an uncertain economy. But maybe not anymore. A profitable company like Zynga could still receive a warm welcome in the IPO market. But weaker companies are likely to get kicked around. The yelps that result won't be happy ones.