Review site Yelp has acquired its French equivalent, Cityvox, for an undisclosed sum, the company announced this week. Cityvox, founded in 1999, was purchased by telecom company Orange in 2008. As JournalduNet reports, the company counts 1.3 Million members and 300,000 reviews across various cities in France – staggeringly small compared to Yelp, Foursquare, or TripAdvisor.
The reviews market is heating up in France – TripAdvisor purchased LaFourchette earlier this year, and it’s clear that getting users, and getting reviews, is important. Oddly enough, Cityvox has been losing both members and money since its acquisition, so the purchase was not likely very expensive. If anything, this is likely Orange offloading non-critical assets, or at least assets that are costing the company money.