Street Fight Daily: Groupon Bolsters Events, nCrowd’s Acquisition Spree Continues
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology
Groupon Bolsters its Offerings With SideTour Deal (Wall Street Journal)
The discount coupon service bought SideTour, a two-year-old hub for hosting and booking small local events in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, is part of Groupon effort to differentiate away from daily-deals rival LivingSocial and others by providing unique experiences and activities that can’t be found anywhere else.
Community News Revenues: How the Networks Compare to the ‘Indies’ (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: I was surprised — shocked, actually — to discover that the regional community news network Daily Voice has average ad sales of only $38,000 annually on a current basis at each of its 41 sites in suburban Connecticut and New York. Is this the new normal for ad revenue at community news sites? I went to four other community news publishers-owners, all independents, to get their reaction.
Still Clinging To The Daily Deals Dream? One (Very Active) Buyer Remains (PandoDaily)
If you think daily deals are dead, you are correct. If all goes as planned for nCrowd, a distant third-place player in the daily deals market, it will eventually be the only player in the daily deals market. The Atlanta-based company has now acquired 22 failed competitors in the past two years for a total subscriber list of just over four million.
Case Study: Lowe’s Builds On Mobile Strategy With In-Store Item Locators (Street Fight)
As consumers get savvier in the way they use mobile technology while shopping at brick-and-mortar stores, retailers are beginning to provide their own tools to combat the showrooming effect. For Lowe’s, that means offering mobile tools that shoppers can use to locate items in-store, scan barcodes, read product reviews, check out image galleries, and manage their own loyalty program accounts.
Why Consumer Reports Says You Can’t Trust Angie’s List (Forbes)
According to a new survey from Consumer Reports, the trust consumer have with Angie’s List or Yelp should all come down to how the sites gather the reviews and compile the ratings. Consumer Reports studied six different consumer review sites – Angie’s List, the Better Business Bureau, Consumers’ Checkbook, Google+ Local, Porch and Yelp – and found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that not all are as trustworthy as they claim to be.
Apple Maps Vs. Google Maps in the New iOS 7 (Skift)
With the release of iOS7 comes a radical re-design of the user experience on smartphones and tablets, as well as Apple’s second attempt to get its Maps product right. Last year’s debut of an Apple-made map product in iOS 6 was widely recognized as a disaster, despite the equally acknowledged fact that Apple had to stop relying on Google’s Maps at some point.
Staples, RadioShack Yank Amazon Lockers From Stores (Bloomberg)
Staples and RadioShack ave removed Amazon.com lockers from their stores about a year after starting the program as competition stiffens with the online retailer. The chains began testing a system last year in which Amazon shoppers could have a Web order delivered to a store and then pick it up for no extra cost, which allowed customers to avoid being home to receive a package.
GoDaddy Adds Twitter Functionality to Small Business Set-Up Plan (Mashable)
Noting that 85% of its small business customers don’t have a Twitter account, GoDaddy has partnered with Twitter to let such customers quickly set up a profile page. The Twitter functionality, available starting Wednesday, is now part of GoDaddy’s Website Builder, which helps small businesses get online. Now, in addition to selecting a website template, a Twitter profile can be created using Website Builder’s 300 themes and 25,000 stock images.
Chili’s Restaurants Will Soon Offer You A Tablet With Your Margarita (Business Insider)
Chili’s restaurants wants to become the ultimate techno-dining experience with plans to put a tablet on every table in all 823 restaurants nationwide. The device, a 7-inch tablet made by Ziosk, will allow restaurant goers to order food and drinks, pay their bill and play games at the table. It will also ask for surveys/customer feedback, and let diners enroll in customer rewards programs.