Street Fight Daily: 08.01.11

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

Foursquare is looking to cash in on all those check-ins. The company is nearing a decision to start charging the 500,000 registered merchants which access a suite of Foursquare services that are now free, but won’t be forever, the company said. (New York Post)

More than 91 million US consumers will use the internet through a mobile device at least monthly by the end of this year, and research shows that the increase in on-the-go web usage goes hand in hand with more search activity for local content. (eMarketer)

By partnering with an established mobile app that has been downloaded more than 10 million times, Groupon gets instant distribution. People use Foursquare for other reasons, and now they get to see deals also as an added bonus. (TechCrunch)

Chinese start-up Let’s Powwow is a unique location-based service (LBS), social network, and group buy/deals site.  Rather than just focusing on check-ins or brands, Lets Powwow instead aims to connect its users more closely with actual venues, create hyperlocal deals, get users to “redeem” deals at venues, and encourage people to bring along friends to a store. (Penn Olson)

“Groupon is doing on a large scale what I did as a child with a lemonade stand — forgetting to take a little something I like to call ‘costs’ into account when calculating profits,” writes Alexandra Petri. (Washington Post)

LivingSocial has more than 1,600 employees and 30 million members in 13 countries. The company hires about six new people per day, so if you’re in the market for a job, there’s probably one for you there. (Mashable)

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