TripAdvisor is one of the pioneers of "user generated content", also known as a review site. The business model is one of advertising and sponsorship and it is totally dependent upon traffic to the site producing clicks to its various advertisers and sponsors, including current parent, Expedia.
In February, TripAdvisor had 10.9 million unique visitors, up 2.5% from January. Year over year, they were up 7.4%. There are over 7.7 million sites that refer traffic to TripAdvisor. It's closest competitor if Yelp.com, which has 12.3m unique visitors in the same period. Yelp is gaining steam year over year, with 61.55% year over year increase, largely due to its popularity in the mobile arena with its app and check-in capabilities, a FourSquare meets TripAdvisor app.
