OpenTable had a good year. In their earnings report, OpenTable announced better than expected profits while their stock price rose to an all-time high.

The day that OpenTable announced their earnings report, their stock price closed up $0.48 on the day. Their stock price now at $85.28 they've done very well for themselves considering their IPO price of $20. The earnings are driven by the company's monthly charge per restaurant subscriber, as well as a fee charged for each table reserved. The service is free for the customers; it is the restaurant that foots the bill.

OpenTable has largely dominated the online reservation market. They now have over 13,750 restaurants subscribing to their service. At those restaurants, the reservation service states that the number of customers using OpenTable has grown 51% to 17.8M reservations. The customers that use their smartphone to make a reservation has also grown by 189%.

These numbers underscore a common trend in the restaurant industry. New technology in the market provides customers with the ability to have a table available without waiting in line or even talking to a host. The increase in mobile reservations also suggests that customers are already out of the house when they decide where it is they'd like to eat. Services like OpenTable, Yelp, Culini and others help provide information about hours, reviews, menus and then reservations.

Despite the growth of OpenTable, they haven't been without criticism. Techcrunch recently discussed the need for a disruption in the online reservation space. Sarah Lacy even went off about how antiquated their service is on her personal blog. Restaurants have reported working with Opentable is much like being held hostage. Their record $5.1M in earnings of the last quarter of 2010 shows how strong their position in the market is.