EveryBlock President: Economics of Hyperlocal Editorial ‘Broken’
The MSNBC.com-owned hyperlocal network rebooted in 2011, shifted its product’s focus toward a more interactive product centered largely around user-generated content. We caught up with EveryBlock’s president, Brian Addison (who will be appearing as a speaker at the Street Fight Summit), to discuss the role of data, editorial and user-generated content in the future of hyperlocal news…
Street Fight Daily: Ebay Tests Deals, CitySearch Announces Layoffs
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… EBay tests deals on services, takes on Groupon (Reuters)… Shrink To Grow: Citysearch And Urbanspoon Parent Company CityGrid Lays Off 15% Of Its Employees (TechCrunch)… DNAinfo, In Bid to Raise Profile Among Local Advertisers, Starts ‘Small Business Insider’ (Capital New York)…
Street Fight Daily: Groupon Launches POS, Wal-Mart Tests Same-Day Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Groupon Eyes Restaurants With Nationwide POS Offering (Reuters)… Same-Day Delivery Test at Wal-Mart (New York Times)… Borrell Predicts Digital Revenue Will Rise 30% Next Year at Some Newspapers (Poynter)…
Foursquare ‘Opens for Business’ as Questions Loom
Capping off a summer-long push to lay the groundwork for Foursquare’s financial future, CEO Dennis Crowley pitched the service to brand marketers at an Advertising Week event on Monday. It’s a fitting conclusion to what has been a critical period of maturation and redefinition for the company, as it looks to transition from startup heartthrob to standalone business…
Street Fight Daily: Seattle PD Tap Hyperlocal Tweets, Armstrong Talks Patch
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Hey, @SeattlePD: What’s the Latest? (New York Times)… AOL’s Tim Armstrong Talks Ads, Patch, and HuffPost Live (AdWeek)… The Future of Mobile News (Project for Excellence in Journalism)…
Street Fight Daily: DNAinfo Preps Expansion, Google Rethinks Local Discovery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Joe Ricketts ready to launch DNAinfo in Chicago (Chicago Business Journal)… A New Google App Gives You Local Information — Before You Ask for It (New York Times)… Amazon Could Be Working On A Square Competitor (TechCrunch)…
Street Fight Daily: Groupon Sees Talent Drain, Analyst Slams Zillow
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… As Groupon Struggles, Some of Its Brighter Talent is Walking Out Door (Chicago Sun-Times)… Shares of Zillow Sink After Analyst Says Prospects Stink (GeekWire)… Apple v. Google Will Define the Fourth Wave of Online Mapping (Venture Beat)…
Nimble Commerce Expands Off of White-Label Model, Launches Deal Exchange
White label deal purveyor Nimble Commerce has taken a page from the online advertising industry’s book, rolling out an offers exchange this morning to play matchmaker between local publishers and sales forces. Called Nimble Network, the product takes much of the thinking from only ad exchanges and applies it to the deals space…
Patch Redesign Emphasizes Social as Path to Revenue Growth
AOL’s hyperlocal news network released a major redesign Sunday evening, pushing the platform away from a traditional editorial news property and into a more social, user-driven service. The move marks the beginning of what AOL CEO Tim Armstrong called “phase two” in the company’s evolution…
Report: 72% of SMBs Plan to Increase Mobile Spend in Next 12 Months
Much of the survey reinforces what we already know – namely, that location targeting is a big value driver for SMBs and web sales models like cost-per-click and cost per impression will not fly in a mobile environment. The survey conducted by Borrell Associates on behalf of Pontiflex also found that 46% of SMBs would be interested in a self-serve option for mobile advertising, which is good sign for the entire local marketing space…
Hibu Hooks Up With Closely, Continuing Partnership Push
Amid reports of a creditor takeover, Hibu — formerly the Yell Group — has inked partnerships with Denver-based promotions startup Closely, as well as a U.K.-based payments processor Global Payments to solidify its local marketing suite for small businesses. The moves come four months into the debt-laden publisher’s rebranding efforts…
Street Fight Daily: Edo Raises $15M, Local Retail Spend Up in 2013
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Card-Linked Local Offers Platform Edo Raises $15M Series C (TechCrunch)… Local Web Retail Ad Spend to Hit $4.2B in ’13 (Net News Check)… Locaid Bolsters Location Service With IP Address Data (GigaOm)…
iPhone 5: What Passbook and Maps Could Mean for Hyperlocal
Apple is set to announce the iPhone 5 during a press event in San Francisco later today, and with it, a set of features that could deeply impact the hyperlocal ecosystem. Maps and Passbook have the potential to become core, high-growth platforms within the hyperlocal industry, and the deeper integration of Siri could move the needle in local search…
Street Fight Daily: Mason Opens Up, Apple’s New Location Patent
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Andrew Mason Talks About Groupon’s Growth and Growing Up (Chigao Tribune)… Apple Patent Would Disable Smartphones by Location (Mashable)… Locu opens its local business data trove to devs with API (GigaOm)…
Zaarly Expands Local Marketplace With ‘Storefronts’
A little less than year after raising $14 million in series A funding and adding HP CEO Meg Whitman to its board, Zaarly has pushed out the next iteration of its local marketplace this morning. Called Storefronts, the product provides verified sellers with curated brand pages, where buyers can browse services, engage with content about the provider, and begin to build relationships with the individuals behind the services…
SFD: Reviews Impact Business, Groupon Execs Back Competitor
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… How Online Reviews are Crucial to a Restaurant’s Takings (The Guardian)… Awkward Belly Dance for Groupon (Wall Street Journal)… Patch Losses Communications Direct Janine Iamunno (Romenesko)…
JiWire Launches ‘Location Graph’ to Build Audience for Location Media
The new service ingests billions of location signals from the company’s location media network (which includes Wi-Fi as well as smartphone and tablet impressions) and builds profiles on top of that data. The key here is that these profiles delve into a user’s entire location footprint, not only his or her current location…
Nextdoor CEO on Patch, Facebook, and Building Social for the Real World
In July, dot-com veteran Nirav Tolia announced announced a major round of funding which valued his 22-month-old startup Nextdoor at $100 million. Street Fight caught up with Tolia recently to discuss raising money for hyperlocal projects, developing technology for real-world communities, and the increasingly blurred line between information and social connectivity in the local space…
With Passbook, iPhone 5 Answers Mobile’s ‘Dirty Little Secret’
More data on a faster device means new opportunities for data-heavy hyperlocal developers, which should open up some new innovations by developers. And while the omission of near-field communications may dash the hopes of some who looked for Apple to push into payments, it does not diminish the potential impact of iOS6, the operating system announced in June, and its key feature — Passbook…