Three Years After Its Launch, Foursquare Works to Become a Business
Three years ago this morning, Foursquare launched what one pundit called its “where-am-I-now app” at SXSW – the name did not stick. Since its launch, the location-based service has attracted over 20 million users and upwards of 750,000 merchants, has outflanked a company worth $94 billion in the location space, and crushed a competitor that was sold to said company for its parts…
DataSphere Lands $8 Million in Additional Funding
DataSphere Technologies has raised $8 million in investor financing to continue growing its business, which creates and maintains community websites for TV stations owned by Gannett, Meredith, and other major “legacy” media companies. The company’s 1,900 community and neighborhood sites now reach 50 million unique visitors monthly…
6 Mobile Payments Platforms for Merchants
Only 4% of merchants currently accept mobile payments, according to a study by Javelin Strategy & Research, however 20% say they intend to adopt this technology within the next 12 months. Given that mobile payments are still in their infancy, and the landscape is still wide open, several players are vying for market dominance. It’s hard to say yet whether one will be a clear winner, or, as with cell phones and credit cards themselves, there will be a handful of leading options.
Street Fight Daily: Tending to Patch, Fondu Redesign, Hyperlocal Panel at SXSW
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
The Constant Gardener: My 2 Years Tending AOL’s Hyperlocal Experiment (CJR)…
Shoppers Prefer Using Mobile Web Over Retail Apps (Mashable)…
Solving the Problem of Mobile Location: More Consumer Education than Technology (Screenwerk)…
CityMaps Releases Mobile App, Wants to Be Kayak for Places Info
After spending three months in a web-only beta, social mapping service CityMaps is making its move to mobile. The New York-based company has released its first mobile app on iOS this morning and has announced its expansion to San Francisco and Austin. The service is essentially a Kayak for local information, aggregating local signals from sites like Yelp, Twitter, and Foursquare as well as commerce companies like OpenTable, Fandango, and handful of daily deal sites…
What Every Hyperlocal Publisher Needs to Know About Non-Competes
Hyperlocals need to study their advertising agreements closely, and determine whether they can honor — or live with — the restrictions that an ad representative, agency or ad network is imposing on them. Restrictions can influence the layout of a page, and whether publishers can work with other partners for display ads on their pages…
Street Fight Daily: The Gap Geo-Fences, Loopt Sells, Gowalla Shutters
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
Gap Campaign Rethinks Old-School Bus Station Ads (TechCrunch)…
Loopt Sale Shows Future of Location Is Commerce (GigaOm)…
Foursquare Nears 20 Million Users And Crowley Talks About His Co-founder’s Recent Departure (Business Insider)…
Sonar Releases Update, Positions for a Fight
The default incumbent in the exploding social discovery space has released a substantial update to its iOS app in time for South by Southwest. The upgrade brings a handful of features that debuted with the launch of its Android app on Tuesday – namely, a shift in its user interface from displaying neighboring venues to nearby people on its launch screen…
Court Weighs Dismissal of HuffPo Suit — Implications for Hyperlocals
A Federal Court in New York City is holding a hearing this afternoon to decide whether it will dismiss a lawsuit filed against the Huffington Post by unpaid writers and contributors who claim they’re entitled to a share of the proceeds from AOL’s 2011 purchase of the news site. The ruling may affect the future of hyperlocal publishers’ relationships with their contributors…
Local Quotables: Stangel, Biggs, Hyslop and More
The best words about and around the hyperlocal industry. Luke Stangel thinks augmented reality development could mean huge things for hyperlocal; John Biggs blasts hot new app Highlight for sharing users’ information without permission; Kate Hyslop reinforces the importances of an online presence for local businesses; and more…
Street Fight Daily: Highlight Updates, Groupon Crushing It, Tippr Layoffs
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
Hot Location-based Networking App Highlight Gets Even More Useful (TNW)…
Chart: Groupon Is Crushing Its Closest Rival (Business Insider)…
Daily Deal Site Tippr Lays Off 25 staffers, Restructures Sales (GeekWire)…
Why Isn’t Mobile Display Advertising Huge Yet?
Instead of trying to force web paradigms onto mobile, advertisers should be rushing to localize their message and take advantage of the 1-2 punch of smartphones’ portability and location…