News and Analysis

Point Inside Announces Personalization Tool for In-Store Marketing

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The new service leverages historical shopping information to allow retailers to serve shoppers more relevant deals on their phones. It is an extension of the company’s StoreMode platform, which upgrades the usefulness of retailers’ branded apps with features like indoor mapping, product location, and store-specific searches.

Street Fight Daily: Uber President Steps Down, Google Increases Brands’ Control Over Online Ads

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Two Executives, Including President Jeff Jones, to Leave Uber… Google Vows More Control for Brands Over Online Ads… Why Samsung Wants to Build a ‘Corporate-Wide AI Voice System’ …

Openings and New Hires at Empyr, Pitney Bowes, and Button

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Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at Netsertive, Vendasta, Speakeasy and Tapad.

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Street Fight Daily: 09.22.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups…

Ad sales chief Scott Colontonio is leaving AOL’s hyperlocal network Patch after little over a year to join Google. Meanwhile, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong reiterated his assertion that some Patch outposts would be profitable by the end of the year. (PaidContent)…

LivingSocial may raise more than $200 million in funding that would give it a valuation of as much as $6 billion, rather than proceeding toward an initial public offering. (Bloomberg)…

What Hyperlocal Startups Can Learn From Mary Kay

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What comes to mind when you hear the name Mary Kay? A yellow-tinged business model from the Tupperware era for “housewives” looking to make a little extra money? Maybe so, but if you’re looking to succeed in “local,” you ignore the wildly successful local mid-brow tastemaker at your peril…

Street Fight Daily: 09.21.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Foursquare has just hit one billion checkins. The app had gone from 100 million checkins in July, 2010 to 200 million in Oct 2010 to 750 million checkins in June 2011. Along with the milestone, Foursquare has launched a new version of its app. (TechCrunch)…

HipGeo, a location based social network backed by CitySearch and eHarmony execs, has launched an iPhone app that tracks your travels, then stitches together your photos, comments and pinned locations into an animated diary of each day. (ReadWriteWeb)…

Why Local Media Can Dominate Daily Deals

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Pundits have been quick to predict the demise of daily deals following the recent news that Facebook and Yelp have scaled back their entries into the market, and that Groupon has delayed its IPO. Rather than buy into this hype, local media need to view this moment as an opportunity to double down and consolidate their positions to capitalize on this important new revenue stream…

Street Fight Daily: 09.20.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Amazon Local, the e-retail giant’s recently launched daily deals initiative, apparently does not count the space’s no. 2 player — LivingSocial — as a true competitor. LivingSocial, which received $175 million in funding from Amazon last December, is selling the majority of the ads for Amazon Local — a platform that’s been dramatically expanded in the last seven weeks and now appears in 44 markets. (Clickz)…

Success breeds nothing if not copycats, and few industries have seen more imitators in the last 12 months than the daily deals space. But companies looking for hefty exits might be sobered by a new report on the deals space that notes the price of acquisitions has been plummeting. (Fast Company)…

Case Study: For Seattle Video Store, Print is Still King

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Remaining relevant is a challenge for any independent video store that has to compete with subscription-based companies like Netflix. Next Door Media, an ad network of hyperlocal sites, took on that challenge with Scarecrow Video in Seattle, adding its sites to the store’s traditional mix of weekly newspapers, free magazines, and public radio stations…

Why the Merchant API Is Key to Foursquare’s Future

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Last week, Foursquare updated its business page, adding case studies for merchants and use studies for brands, and generally improving the user experience. Since updating its merchant platform in the spring, the location-based social networking company has quietly launched an offensive to create a viable B2B component in their business, laying the groundwork for future monetization…

Sonar CEO: ‘Location Is Reaching an Inflection Point’

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“We spent the last five years uploading our lives to the Internet – our likes, preferences, activities and so on,” says Brett Martin. “Now, we are downloading that information and spreading it over the suitable world. So there is a gold rush of applications which are working to help navigate that data in a physical context.”

Street Fight Daily: 09.19.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups…

The online business of serving up daily deals has attracted millions of dollars in venture capital and spurred dozens of clones of market leaders Groupon Inc. and LivingSocial Inc. Now the industry is starting to shake out. (Wall Street Journal)…

“The national and regional coverage of Hurricane Irene was fine before the storm actually passed through my suburban New Jersey town. But then, what I wanted — and needed — to know came from my local AOL Patch site,” writes Harry Jessell. “The lesson here for broadcasters dabbling in hyperlocal websites or mobile apps is that you can’t do it on the cheap.” (TVNewsCheck)…

TownHog Deal Speaks Volumes About VC-Backed Deal Startups

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BuyWithMe has been looking to scale to catch up with Groupon and LivingSocial, and this is its sixth acquisition this year. TownHog, which has a strong footprint in the Bay Area, where it was started, is a nice feather in their cap.

But TownHog was backed by some serious hitters. As TechCrunch noted, “The company…was backed by a host of star investors (Jawed Karim of YouTube fame and Kevin Hartz of Xoom / Eventbrite to name but a few)…”