Street Fight Daily: 08.22.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.
Imagine if Groupon starts instructing its sales force to start focusing on opportunities other than restaurants, spas, massages and pilates classes. Theoretically, the company could leverage its enormous international subscriber base to venture into offering deals for groceries, household items and other goods regularly purchased offline. (TechCrunch)
“Patch is AOL’s last, best chance to build a growth engine,” writes Maxwell Wessel. “Investors shouldn’t be calling for AOL to back off the business. They should be calling for AOL to double down — not by increasing Patch’s $150M+ yearly cash burn, but by increasing commitment. ” (Harvard Business Review Blog)
Foursquare has been shifting its sights from the present to the future, looking at how it can help recommend where people should go. But the location-based network is also finding a lot of opportunities in the past. (GigaOm)
Gaopeng, Groupon’s Chinese joint venture, fired half of its copywriters Friday. That’s about 50 people. Many of Gaopeng’s employees wore black to work in protest. (Business Insider)
The latest deal of the day for Groupon Inc. co-founders Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky: the Wrigley Building. The two are in advanced talks to buy the ornate, two-tower complex on Michigan Avenue and make it a new home for Groupon and other firms in their portfolio of tech startups. (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Urbandig aims to help you find novel local experiences as you’re walking around. In order to do this the team has pulled in the domain expertise of local bloggers in order to create theme-based tours like “where to see amazing live music in LA” or “grab a taste of local SF food.” (TechCrunch)
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