Street Fight Daily: 11.04.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
The Deal Is On! Groupon Gets $700 Million IPO (PaidContent)
Groupon this week has confirmed itself as the biggest daily deals site of them all, not just in terms of users but value, as it raised $700 million in its IPO — the biggest in tech since Google — valuing the company at around $12.8 billion…
Yahoo Livestand and Local News Aggregation (Nieman Lab)
Ken Doctor: Local should be a green field for the tablet news aggregators. While the big national and global news sites have established powerful app platforms, most local news publishers are way behind the curve, and falling farther behind every day…
ReachLocal Kills Bizzy, Takes $3.3 Million Loss
Location-based recommendation service Bizzy has announced that it will be shutting down in mid-November, marking a major turn of momentum in the local recommendation space. According to a statement released on the company’s blog, the application folded because it “ultimately did not attract the number of users it needed to sustain itself in the long run.”
Case Study: RadioShack Finds Foursquare Customers Spend More
After a tepid start to location-based services, RadioShack fully embraced Foursquare, finding that customers who checked in spent more and were more likely to buy wireless products. The company saw an uptick in buzz as an innovator, too. Now, RadioShack is a close partner of Foursquare, serving as a launch partner for some of its badge offerings, and running a major Foursquare campaign around the holidays last year, Holiday Hero. This year, RadioShack will run a “So Right” badge campaign on Foursquare and look to increase use of location-based tools by associates as the company de-centralizes its operations.
Street Fight Daily: 11.03.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
AOL’s Armstrong Talks Patch Strategy in Q3 Earnings Call (PaidContent)
“When you talk to major auto makers, half goes into local and regional,” Armstrong said, saying that AOL will also be aiming more heavily at local retailers as the company works to make Patch profitable. Armstrong didn’t provide any clearer sense, however, when Patch would be evenly profitable, as opposed to the expectation that some parts of the network will do more than break even by the end of the year…
Groupon’s IPO Is Coming — But How Much Is It Really Worth? (GigaOm)
Colleen Taylor: It’s been a long and winding road, but Groupon is set to hold its initial public offering on the stock market any day now, with several reports saying the IPO will take place by week’s end. It will be interesting to see just how high Groupon goes once it actually hits the public market…
A Conversation With Ted Leonsis on Social, Local and Mobile
Ted Leonsis understands social media better than you. Let’s just start there. And he doesn’t just understand it academically, or as a learned practitioner, or even as a social media services innovator (which he was). I’d like to think social media is visceral to Leonsis, but that would miss the mark, too. The truth is […]
Main Street Connect Announces New CEO, $7 Million in Funding
Main Street Connect, the network of hyperlocal news sites, announced yesterday that Thompson Reuters’ Global Head of Product Management Zohar Yardeni would come on as CEO, replacing founder Carll Tucker who will become chairman of the company’s board of directors. The company also announced $7 million in new funding, matching an inaugural round raised a year ago…
Street Fight Daily: 11.02.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
Aol’s Patch Taps Ad Tech Startup PaperG To Boost Local Ad Sales (TechCrunch)
PaperG has announced that its technology will be released in over 100 of Patch’s markets, enabling Patch sales teams access instant ad creation, management, and optimization for their litany of local advertisers…
Groupon Founders Will Control Majority Stake Even After IPO (AllThingsD)
Groupon has conducted a two-for-one stock split and recapitalized all of its outstanding shares into newly issued shares of Class A and B stock. CEO Andrew Mason, Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky and Director Bradley Keywell will now control 58.1 percent of the voting shares…
#SFS11 VIDEO: What’s the Next Move for Daily Deals?
In a panel at the Street Fight Summit, three top executives from the daily deals industry debated how the phenomenon would evolve, how companies might bring more value to merchants, and what types of companies were most likely to survive. The panel featured Closely CEO Perry Evans, Dealbird CEO Chad Billmyer, and Group Commerce CEO Jonty Kelt…
How to Market to Local Moms
As publishers of websites for suburban moms and advocates for the main street merchants trying to woo them, we spend a lot of time thinking about what matters to the maternally minded. Since women are responsible for 85% of household purchases, reaching the “Chief Household Operator” is a key objective for most local merchants. While these tips are squarely directed at local business owners, many apply to hyperlocal news and blogs as well…
Street Fight Daily: 11.01.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
Urban Airship’s Partnership With SimpleGeo Turns Into An Acquisition (TechCrunch)
SimpleGeo has been acquired by Urban Airship for approximately $3.5 million. In July, the two companies formed a strategic partnership which was intended to provide better ways for developers to offer location-aware push notifications in their applications…
Groupon’s Product Expansion Masks Decline in Core Local Deals Business (Yipit Blog)
Groupon grew 8% in North American from Q2 to Q3 because of the new products it launched, but its core local deals business actually dropped 3%…
Hyperlocals and School Coverage: Where’s the Big Picture?
Hyperlocals could do a much better job covering the biggest news in their communities — the schools. What’s happening in schools is big news not just for parents but everybody hyperlocals are trying to reach. Hyperlocals should be all over the big-picture story. But from what I see, they aren’t…