Yelp expands Asian presence with Taiwan launch

Yelp launched Wednesday in Taiwan, in an expansion of the Asian presence of the popular consumer business review service.

"Beginning today, people throughout Taiwan are able to create accounts on Yelp.com.tw to share their opinions about great local businesses," the San Francisco company said in a statement.

Yelp also launched its iPhone and Android applications for Taiwan and tools for business owners.

Taiwan's 23 million residents "are, in many ways, very similar to Yelp's home population in Silicon Valley," said Miriam Warren, Yelp's vice president for new markets.

"A love of discovery and of new experiences, as well as the fact that a bevy of influential technology brands call Taiwan their home, definitely makes Yelp a natural fit here."

The crowdsourcing review site is available in more than 25 countries, but its presence in Asia has been limited to Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong until now.

The service can be used in 16 languages including traditional Chinese, the company said.

Yelp has some 135 million users in its markets, which include the United States, Canada, Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Singapore, Poland, Turkey, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Brazil, Portugal, Mexico, Japan, Argentina, Chile and Hong Kong.

© 2015 AFP