Street Fight Daily: Facebook Challenges Yelp, Foursquare Rethinks the Web

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.

facebook-logo1Facebook Challenges Yelp With Mobile Pages Redesign Featuring Actions, Local Biz Details, And Ratings (TechCrunch)
Facebook has rolled out a global redesign of mobile Pages that features details about local businesses, star ratings, and buttons to Like, Call, or Check-In to them up top. The focuses on mobile and local make sense considering almost half of Facebook’s business, organization and public-figure Page visits now come from mobile, and Facebook now hosts 15 million local business Pages in addition to brand Pages.

Local Search for Events: The Great Missed Opportunity (Street Fight)
Damian Rollison: My jumping off point for this week’s column is a recent post from Greg Sterling, where he observes that despite all the impressive innovation around local search in recent years, no one has launched a truly useful local events service. I have had this feeling for years and wasn’t sure if it was just me. But if Greg doesn’t know about a local events service that truly works, I think it’s fair to say one doesn’t exist. So pay attention, developers and entrepreneurs: local events need a killer app.

Foursquare Revamps Business Pages to Take on Yelp as Web Visitors Hit 50 Million per Month (Verge)
Foursquare’s mobile apps have for some time stood head and shoulders above Yelp’s, but there was always one area where Foursquare lagged: the web. Today, a big update on Foursquare’s web app hopes to change that — a fresh coat of paint that front-loads Foursquare’s top selling points over its rival.

How Consumer Messaging Is Going From ‘Push’ to ‘Pull’ (Street Fight)
Terry Heaton: The biggest battle coming in the world of marketing is a 180-degree shift in the routing of commerce-related messages. Today, we call them “advertisements,” one-directional messages FROM somebody with something to sell TO somebody who may potentially be a buyer. Tomorrow, the messages will come FROM those wishing to buy TO those with something to sell.

Can Yelp Hold Off Foursquare and Facebook? (Screenwerk)
Greg Sterling: People will use multiple tools for local recommendations — BIA/Kelsey’s survey data indicate more than five if I recall. It’s quite possible that Yelp, Facebook local search and Foursquare can all co-exist with Google accordingly. However I suspect they won’t all co-exist equally. That’s what’s at stake here: who’s primary and who’s secondary, especially in mobile.

Groupon: Better off without Andrew Mason (Fortune)
Mason’s ousting has since helped propel shares up over 39%. But while Wall Street may have some renewed confidence in a Mason-free Groupon, the company’s future remains unclear. Sucharita Mulpuru, a Forrester Research analyst, has been critical of Groupon in the past, but ultimately believes theirs is a sustainable model, albeit a smaller one compared to the company’s peak.

Payments 2013: New Payment Options Forcing Banks, Others to Change (Local Onliner)
Peter Krasilovsky: In the local space, we’re seeing disruption happen with Yellow Pages and newspapers. Banks are seeing it happen as well, which will cause a major change in the way that customers keep track of their money, buy goods and services and stay “loyal” to merchants.

A Peek Into the Office of a $270 Million Startup (Open Forum)
Yext is a quiet giant in the business of local. In June 2012, Yext announced a $27 million round of funding, giving it a valuation of $270 million. Then it made the news again in August with the sale of an advertising business, Felix, for $30 million. Check out the tour for a look inside Yext’s new office.

Mobile Payment Solution ZooZ Picks up $2M to Help Drive Retailer Adoption (TheNextWeb)
In-app mobile payment solution provider ZooZ has closed a $2 million Series A round led by XSeed Capital. The company said that it will use the funds to pursue product development , form new partnerships with retailers and other businesses, and better establish itself in the marketplace.

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