Probably it's just to expensive to defend from litigation on the user generated content business when it's about reviews for other business... i'm taking that out of my butt as i have no idea. but i sure as hell was infuriated when i couldn't use yelp to check places not protected by the NSA.

now i use foursquare in the US, even though the reviews are less abundant, the paid reviews (just read _any_ mechanic review in yelp!) are almost nowhere to be found.

yelp is just blind trying to monetize US and digging it's grave.