Google vs Yelp: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
Google reported $402.8B of revenue in FY2025 and $132.2B of net income. Yelp reported $1.5B of revenue in FY2025 and $145.6M of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
Alphabet's FY2025 Form 10-K reported $402.836 billion of revenue and $132.170 billion of net income, making it one of the most profitable companies in the world. Growth accelerated in 2026: Q2 2026 revenue rose 24% year over year to $119.8 billion, operating income rose 30% to $40.8 billion and operating margin reached 34.0%. Reported Q2 net income of $112.1 billion was inflated by a $99.0 billion gain, mostly unrealized gains on equity holdings, so operating income is the cleaner measure. The trade-off is spending: management raised 2026 capital expenditure guidance to $195-205 billion, and analysts flagged negative free cash flow in Q2 2026 as data-center investment outpaced operating cash flow.
Yelp
Yelp's net revenue rose from $1.34 billion in 2023 to $1.41 billion in 2024 and a record $1.46 billion in 2025. Net income reached $146 million in 2025 and diluted EPS rose 19% to $2.24. Adjusted EBITDA was $369 million, a 25% margin. Yelp repurchased $292 million of stock in 2025, and the board added $500 million to the buyback authorization in February 2026. In Q2 2026, net revenue grew 1% to $376 million, net income fell to $32 million and adjusted EBITDA fell 9% to $91 million. Management narrowed 2026 guidance to $1.460-$1.470 billion of net revenue and $315-$325 million of adjusted EBITDA.
Revenue and profit by year
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $402.8B | $132.2B | 32.8% | +15.1% | Source |
| FY2024 | $350B | $100.1B | 28.6% | +13.9% | Source |
| FY2023 | $307.4B | $73.8B | 24.0% | +8.7% | Source |
| FY2022 | $282.8B | $60B | 21.2% | +9.8% | Source |
| FY2021 | $257.6B | $76B | 29.5% | +41.2% | Source |
| FY2020 | $182.5B | $40.3B | 22.1% | +12.8% | Source |
| FY2019 | $161.9B | $34.3B | 21.2% | +18.3% | Source |
| FY2018 | $136.8B | $30.7B | 22.5% | +23.4% | Source |
| FY2017 | $110.9B | $12.7B | 11.4% | +22.8% | Source |
| FY2016 | $90.3B | $19.5B | 21.6% | — | Source |
Yelp
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $1.5B | $145.6M | 9.9% | +3.7% | Source |
| FY2024 | $1.4B | $132.8M | 9.4% | +5.6% | Source |
| FY2023 | $1.3B | $99.2M | 7.4% | +12.0% | Source |
| FY2022 | $1.2B | $36.3M | 3.0% | +15.7% | Source |
| FY2021 | $1B | $39.7M | 3.8% | +18.2% | Source |
| FY2020 | $872.9M | -$19.4M | -2.2% | -13.9% | Source |
| FY2019 | $1B | $40.9M | 4.0% | +7.6% | Source |
| FY2018 | $942.8M | $55.4M | 5.9% | +10.8% | Source |
| FY2017 | $850.8M | $153M | 18.0% | +18.8% | Source |
| FY2016 | $716.1M | -$1.7M | -0.2% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
- Google Search advertising~12%
Auction-based text and shopping ads served alongside organic search results, generating approximately $198 billion in FY2024 through cost-per-click and cost-per-impression pricing.
- YouTube advertising~12%
Video advertising across pre-roll, mid-roll, display, and Shorts formats, plus subscription revenue from YouTube Premium, Music, and YouTube TV, totaling approximately $36 billion in ad revenue for FY2024.
- Google Cloud~12%
Infrastructure-as-a-service, platform tools, Vertex AI, BigQuery, Mandiant cybersecurity, and Google Workspace subscriptions, generating significant FY2025 revenue.
- Google Network~12%
Ads placed on third-party websites through AdSense, AdMob, and Google Ad Manager, generating approximately $31 billion in FY2024 with revenue shared with publishers.
- Other Bets~12%
Revenue from Waymo autonomous ride-hailing, Verily health technology, hardware sales (Pixel, Nest, Fitbit), Google Play commissions, and other non-advertising sources.
Yelp
- Services advertising65
Ad revenue from home, local, auto and professional service businesses. $948 million in 2025.
- Restaurants, retail & other advertising and other revenue35
Advertising from restaurants, retail and other categories, plus other revenue such as data licensing, Yelp Guest Manager and Hatch.
Business model and strategy
How it makes money
Alphabet makes money mainly by selling ads against user intent and attention. Google Search & other, YouTube ads and the Google Network together account for roughly three quarters of revenue. Advertisers bid in real-time auctions to appear next to queries or videos, and Google charges per click, view or conversion.
Growth strategy
Alphabet's growth plan has four parts: put Gemini into Search (AI Overviews and AI Mode), Workspace, Android and Chrome to keep users and advertisers engaged; sell AI infrastructure, TPUs and Gemini models through Google Cloud, backed by the Wiz security platform acquired in March 2026; grow subscriptions such as YouTube Premium, YouTube TV and Google One AI plans;
Competitive advantage
Alphabet's edge is a stack few rivals own end to end: default distribution through Android and Chrome, the largest pool of search-intent data, YouTube's video audience, its own TPU chips and global data centers, and frontier models from Google DeepMind.
Yelp
How it makes money
Yelp makes most of its revenue by selling advertising to local businesses, largely on a cost-per-click basis. Ads appear in search results and on business pages. Services categories (home, local, auto and professional services) are the largest part: they brought in $948 million of advertising revenue in 2025, about 65% of net revenue.
Growth strategy
Yelp is using AI to help consumers and businesses (Yelp Assistant for consumers, Yelp Host for answering business calls), licensing its content to AI platforms, and selling Hatch's lead-management software to service businesses, alongside its Services advertising.
Competitive advantage
Yelp has two decades of first-party reviews (about 330 million cumulative), a large base of claimed business pages (about 8.4 million active claimed locations), and a Services ad business with record revenue per location. That content is valuable enough that AI partners such as ChatGPT now license it.
Questions about Google vs Yelp
Which company has higher revenue — Alphabet Inc. or Yelp Inc.?
Alphabet Inc. reported $402.8B (FY2025), while Yelp Inc. reported $1.5B (FY2025). By last reported revenue, Alphabet Inc. is the larger business, with Yelp Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base.
What is the market cap of Alphabet Inc. vs Yelp Inc.?
Alphabet Inc.'s market capitalisation stands at $4.31T, while Yelp Inc.'s is $1.1B. Alphabet Inc. carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to Yelp Inc..
Which is more financially efficient — Alphabet Inc. or Yelp Inc.?
Alphabet Inc. generates $2.11M / employee in revenue per employee, while Yelp Inc. generates $283k / employee. Alphabet Inc. shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do Alphabet Inc. and Yelp Inc. make money?
Alphabet Inc. and Yelp Inc. generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Alphabet Inc.: Alphabet makes money mainly by selling ads against user intent and attention. Yelp Inc.: Yelp makes most of its revenue by selling advertising to local businesses, largely on a cost-per-click basis.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — Alphabet Inc. or Yelp Inc.?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, Alphabet Inc. trades at 10.7x P/S and Yelp Inc. at 0.8x P/S. Alphabet Inc. commands a higher revenue multiple, typically indicating that investors expect faster growth or higher future margins compared to Yelp Inc.. A higher multiple is not inherently better — it may also signal that the stock is priced for perfection.
Is Alphabet Inc. bigger than Yelp Inc.?
By last reported revenue, Alphabet Inc. ($402.8B (FY2025)) is the larger company compared to Yelp Inc. ($1.5B (FY2025)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Google vs Yelp overview