In OpenTable Deal, Signs of Deeper Convergence in Travel and Local
Two recent acquisitions by Priceline and TripAdvisor offer an early look into a logic that could drive a more comprehensive consolidation of the travel and local technology sectors. Many of the structures built to help visitors navigate new cities — and implicitly for marketers to reach tourists — might quickly become obsolete…
Street Fight Daily: Ebay Settles Proxy Dispute, Gowalla Founder’s Second Take
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… EBay, Carl Icahn Settle Heated PayPal Dispute (Wall Street Journal)… Gowalla Founder Josh Williams Raises $2.1 Million To Have Another Go At Local Mobile Discovery Apps (TechCrunch)… Bezos Confirms AmazonFresh Expansion Plans, Says Drones Are for Real (Recode)…
Street Fight Daily: Uber Looks Beyond Taxis, Foursquare Launches Self-Serve Product
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… On-Demand Everything? Uber Might Steer In A New Direction (CNet)… Foursquare Launches Self-Serve Promoted Listings For Small Businesses (MarketingLand)… Shopkick Adds In-App Purchases To Help Retailers Fight Amazon: ‘We Are The Anti-Amazon Coalition’ (TechCrunch)…
Street Fight Daily: Gowalla Founder Leaving Facebook
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Gowalla Co-Founder Josh Williams to Depart Facebook (AllThingsD)… The False Hope of Hyperlocal (Digiday)… Does In-Store Location Tracking Cross The “Creepy Line”? (MarketingLand)…
Street Fight Daily: Samsung’s ‘Passbook’ App, PayPal Co-Founder’s Payments Play
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Samsung Takes a Page from Apple’s Passbook With New Wallet App (Verge)… PayPal Co-Founder Levchin Launches New Payments Startup, Affirm (AllThingsD)… Apple Patents Situational Awareness And Location Information Sharing For Mobile Devices (TechCrunch)…
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…
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)…
Street Fight Daily: 03.08.12
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
Facebook Becomes Location Backbone That Lets Apps Import Checkins From Each Other (Street Fight)…
Will Ambient Social Location Apps Be Consumer Duds? (ReadWriteWeb)…
AOL Patch Sales People Reportedly Being Fired (Business Insider)…
Foursquare Brings Explore Update to Mobile
The once geo-social-pioneer-turned-local-juggernaut, has updated its Android and iPhone applications with many of the local search features launched a few weeks ago on Explore for the Web — namely, better filters and in-search photos, as well as improved recommendations through wider access to Foursquare’s dynamic dataset…
Case Study: Southwest Airlines’ Time Limits on LBS
Platforms like Foursquare and Facebook haven’t had any trouble attracting attention from national brands, but what’s the secret to attracting interest from these brands in lesser-known start-ups? According to Southwest Airlines emerging media specialist Christi McNeill, it all comes down to persistence, innovation, and a little bit of hand-holding…
Street Fight Daily: 12.13.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
Gowalla Went For $3M In Facebook Shares, And Many Investors Were Cool With That (TechCrunch)…
When It Comes to Mobile Devices, Focus Will Be on Location, Location, Location (Washington Post)…
Guardian’s n0tice Will Pay Citizen Moderators (ReadWriteWeb)…
Street Fight Daily: 12.12.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
AOL’s Patch Gets a Little Less Hyperlocal (Ad Age)…
The Gowalla-Facebook Deal Didn’t ‘Screw Over’ Gowalla’s Investors (Business Insider)…
How Can Local Businesses Structure More Effective Daily Deals? (TechCrunch)…
The Capitulation of a Social-Mobile High-Flyer
Two years ago it would have been hard to imagine Gowalla selling for anything less than a pretty penny. But a couple things have happened since then to devalue mobile apps. First, the location-based gamification juggernaut has not developed as quickly as some had predicted. Second, the competition for mindshare on handsets has magnified as many more eye-popping apps vie for attention. It’s a real street fight out there in the land of mobile apps and we will likely see more casualties, even among worthy players like Gowalla.
Street Fight Daily: 12.06.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
Foursquare Hits 15 Million Users (BetaBeat)…
Gowalla Versus Foursquare: Why Pretty Doesn’t Always Win (TechCrunch)…
Newsday to Hire 25 in Hyperlocal Digital Expansion (Poynter)…
CONFIRMED: Facebook Acquires Gowalla for Undisclosed Sum
The acquisition marks the end of a long slide for the Austin-based company, which seemingly lost its “check-in” battle with Foursquare despite raising over $10 million in venture capital. In September, Gowalla relaunched as a social travel guide after a ten-month period in which the application was overhauled from the ground up…
Case Study: At Choice Hotels, a Check-In Consolidator is Key
For nearly a year, Choice Hotels has been running a special offer that rewards members of its Choice Privileges program with 50 extra points each time they check-in on Foursquare, Facebook, or Gowalla at more than 1,500 participating properties. By partnering with Topguest, Choice has been able to use LBS to build customer engagement without worrying about managing the infrastructure that a large-scale program requires…
What GoWalla’s Resurgence Says About the State of SoLoMo
GoWalla is re-launching. And what better place to do it than its original birthplace at SXSW? Now fourteen years later, the product will contain a mix of its original SoLoMo formula, features to address today’s demand signals, and other learnings from its first run.