Local Quotables: Moyal, Mims, Tolles, Lessin and more…

The best words about and around the hyperlocal industry.

As the first week of 2012 commences, everyone is speculating about what will happen this year in the hyperlocal industry. Jonathan Moyal sees Lucky Ant helping communities play a bigger role in local business. Jeremy Mims predicts growth for Groupon and Michelle Jones hopes to create an alternative to Yelp. Also, Sam Lessin describes how Facebook’s check-in with timelines is an entirely new kind of LBS and more.

Jeremy Mims, Own Local, January 2, 2012
Street Fight: Saying Groupon is only daily deals and can never be anything else is vastly underestimating this team. Groupon’s future will look far more diverse than many pundits are giving them credit for.

Nate Carter, journo, ex-Patch employee, December 29, 2011 
Business Insider: In order for Patch to be successful, major cost restructuring is in order. Patch needs to cut costs by roughly 60% to 70% in order to give it a hope of reaching profitability in this decade.

Sam Lessin, Facebook Timeline Project Manager, December 29, 2011 
Venture Beat: [The check-in] is cool, but it’s only part of the equation. I think that use case will certainly still power serendipity, but it’s only part of the story. We’re in the early stages of location being an awesome story-telling medium.

Michelle Jones, Menu and Hours, January 3, 2012 
Telecrunch: The general idea is that when you’re looking for information about restaurants on your iPhone chances are pretty good you’re looking for the menu, the restaurant’s hours and contact info. That’s it.

Paul Allen, researcher, January 3, 2012 
New York Times: It [Google +] is gaining 625,000 people a day. In the last week of November it was signing up 199,000 a day.

Jonathan Moyal, Lucky Ant, January 2, 2012 
Street Fight: What they [businesses] are really selling, and what I’m really selling, is their story. What they’re really selling is a participation in their story — it’s being able to invest in your neighborhood; being able to see the benefits of investing in your neighborhood.

Seth Priebatsch, LevelUp, December 26, 2011 
Street Fight: 2012 will be all about the transaction. The companies focusing on location-based interaction are going to drive to connect the engagement they can create with the register.

Chris Tolles, Topix, December 26, 2011 
Street Fight: There’s going to be a lot of right-sizing of daily deals apps, and the daily deals space generally. Consolidation or companies dying.