Today Yelp announced its acquisition of SeatMe Inc., a company that runs a Web- and iPad app-based reservation service for restaurants and other nightlife-related businesses. SeatMe does exactly what its name betrays: its goal is to make the management of reservations simple for businesses. It also includes a feature that texts guests when their table is ready and provides them with estimated wait times.
“With approximately one million U.S. businesses listed on Yelp in the restaurant and nightlife categories, we believe SeatMe will add online reservation capabilities to a broader market while complementing our existing partnerships,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, co-founder and CEO of Yelp. “Additionally, SeatMe provides us with yet another way to close the loop between local businesses and consumers.”
SeatMe’s service directly competes with OpenTable, which just so happens to have a deal in place with Yelp to handle its reservation requests. Yelp acknowledged this in its press release, noting the:
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