News and Analysis
Facebook Brings Users to Local Sites — But the Rest Is Up to the Sites
The verdict is in: local news publishers do need Facebook, Google and other giant distribution platforms. But only to get the first part of the job done. Whether you’re a self-funded entrepreneurial pure-play publisher or a corporate chain of daily newspapers, you can’t, on your own, generate all the traffic that the platforms deliver to your site.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Tests Feed for Local News and Events, Amazon Partners with Toyota
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Is Testing a Feed Specifically for Local News and Events… Amazon Is Bringing Alexa to Your Toyota… AI Troubles Marketers More Than Any Other Technology…
5 Retailers Tapping Voice-Controlled Assistants for Frictionless Shopping
According to a survey by Linc and BrandGarage, one-in-five retailers already believes voice will be an important channel within two years, and 44% of retailers that are increasing their use of AI say they’re doing so through conversational commerce interfaces, Here’s how five major retailers are harnessing the technology.
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Street Fight Daily: Google Close to Acquiring Waze, Why Yahoo Should Buy Foursquare
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Google Is Close to Acquiring Waze, a Rival in Maps (New York Times)… Checklist: All the reasons Yahoo is going to acquire Foursquare (Quartz)… Call It Groupon 3.0: Deals giant on a Mobile Mission (Crain’s Chicago Business)…
Two (Big) Things Preventing Local TV’s Collapse
The concept of network content distribution through local affiliates is being challenged by the Web. Local broadcasters are middlemen in the delivery of network content to the masses, and that was fine in a world absent horizontal connectivity. So it would be easy to assume downstream trouble for local broadcasters. But while there’s quite likely much of that ahead, it won’t totally kill the industry. There are two enormous roadblocks standing in the way.
Openings & New Hires at Yext, Appstack, Local Market Launch, and More…
Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. Read about more hyperlocal execs on the move in this week’s Movers & Shakers column…
LBMA Podcast: InMobi’s Piyush Shah on the Mobile Opportunity in China
In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan discuss TuneIn’s $25 million raise to get in your car; Royal Mail opens late so you can pick up your own mail; The Location Forum makes you pay for privacy guidelines; Bud + Blippar + Folds of Honor = amazing; iPourIt brings RFID to bars; ESRI starts licensing their data. Plus, eMarketer Canada offers insight into Canada’s location and mobile advertising landscape and special guest Piyush Shah of InMobi…
Street Fight Daily: Google Wallet Leaking Money, Brand Networks Snags $68M
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Google Wallet Is Leaking Money (Businessweek)… ‘Uber For Local Home Services’ Provider ClubLocal Launches In The Bay Area (TechCrunch)… Running Local: Why Facebook Marketer Brand Networks Just Snagged A $68 Million Round(Forbes)…
5 Reasons to Add Gift Cards to a Digital Loyalty Program
Promoting customer loyalty is a broad goal that local merchants are tackling in many different ways. While plenty of platforms utilize mobile redemptions and out-of-the-box rewards or coupons to curry favor with consumers, an increasing number of loyalty providers are moving outside the virtual environment with pre-loaded physical gift cards…
Hyperlocal Sustainability (Round 2): Upbeat ‘Indies’ Say They’re Winning
Following up on my column from last week, here are more unvarnished thoughts from “indie” hyperlocal editors and publishers I’ve been talking to about sustainability (a word, by the way, that sets the teeth of some of these entrepreneurial journalists on edge)…
Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Talks ‘Localization,’ Smartphone Adoption Reaches Majority
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Checking Into Foursquare? Yahoo’s CFO Talks About Next Mobile M&A — Including Importance of “Localization.” (AllThingsD)… Pew: 61 Percent In US Now Have Smartphones (MarketingLand)… Yelp Eyes Shopping On Site (SocialTimes)…
With Disparate Data, Factual Founder Sees Opportunity
In a fireside chat with Marketing Evolution CEO Rex Briggs at Street Fight Summit West Tuesday, Gil Elbaz, chief executive at Factual, the location data company, said there’s a massive opportunity for startups to help digest and analyze the massive amount of data coming from mobile devices. The challenge, says Elbaz, is folding additional information into location data to help better understand the context of the user…
Why Marketplaces Fail, and How to Make Them Work in Local
Earlier this spring, Andrei Hagiu, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, published a piece in the Harvard Business Review looking at why marketplaces fail. Based on recent research, Hagiu, and his co-author Julian Wright, broke down the various pitfalls of building a marketplace, concluding that on the continuum between multi-sided platform and reseller, most businesses fell closer to the reseller end of the spectrum…
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