One of our big complaints against hyperlocal sites is they haven’t really invested in the commercial lifeblood of their community. They’re more like the (almost totally irrelevant) equivalent of a public access cable TV channel. That’s why we like the…
Amazon’s a sleeper bet to really shake up local commerce. But what does that look like? For sure, we see the pieces being assembled…the focus on Amazon Stores, the $175 million LivingSocial investment, the Kindle Fire rollout, the expansion of…
Source: Washington Post. Case, Leonsis and partner Donn Davis Universities stimulate major business zones in various cities. So do airports. Hence the Dulles tech corridor in D.C. So does the success of major companies. People leave with their stock options…
ILM West is shaping up to be one of the great ones. Taking place Dec. 12-14 in downtown San Francisco, ILM West really reflects a sea change in local marketing from advertising to the new hybrid model of advertising and…
Yelp’s S-1, which was issued last week as a run-up to a $100 million IPO, reveals a lot of new data about the reviews leader. The big question about Yelp has been whether it can grow against increased pressure from…
A big chunk of the newspaper industry has banded together to adopt Find n Save, a shopping platform featuring a single place to review deals, product inventory, weekly specials, “cents off” grocery deals and local ads. Participating newspaper companies include…
Black Friday and Cyber Monday for holiday shopping are bedrocks of the nation’s economy. Where do deals fit in? As Bloomberg reports, Yipit Data forecasts that U.S. consumers will spend $80 million to $100 million on daily deals gifts between…
Matchbin has spent $10 million to acquire 800 radio and TV accounts from Navteq’s Radio and TV Group (formely Traffic.com). It has also raised $12 million for working assets from Silicon Valley Bank, and is rebranding the combined entity as…
In the wake of Groupon's successful IPO, Angie’s List is apparently set to issue its own IPO on Thursday. The offering would raise up to $113 million for the Indianapolis-based company, which provides members-only reviews of services and medical providers.…
For newspapers, the 1/3 circulation/1/3 display/1/3 classifieds revenue model of the print days hasn’t made the transition to online, and there doesn’t seem to be enough time to right the ocean liner. But as a local media channel, newspapers have…
Image Source: Reuters via New York Times Groupon’s final IPO price went from dank estimates of $10-$12 to $20 by the time it was priced, raising $700 million on a relatively small offering of its shares. That puts the company's…
We’ve been having a lot of fun putting together the ILM West conference Dec. 12-14 in San Francisco. As noted in our webinar yesterday (
Image Source: Mashable Groupon’s greatly reduced IPO is apparently set to take place on Friday, Nov. 4, in an environment much less friendly than originally envisioned last spring. The bloom has come off for a number of reasons. Groupon has…
Ticketmaster-Citysearch once had the idea that it could spur local commerce by matching concert goers with nearby restaurants, bars and even parking lots. AOL Digital City and Sidewalk explored similar concepts. But no one got it totally right. Now, Weotta,…
It is an article of faith that small businesses drive the U.S. economy, acting as incubators of innovation, and leading all forms of employment growth, especially for immigrants determined to raise their living standards. I’ll always remember New York Mayor…
Facebook has become an important marketing channel to SMBs, according to InfoGroup's quarterly Small Business Marketing Outlook. Twenty percent of those surveyed said Facebook was extremely/very important, and 24 percent said it was somewhat important. Twitter is important, too. Twenty-four…
If you are a major aggregator of daily deals and the industry seems to be slowing down, what do you do next? That’s the question faced by 8coupons, one of the original aggregators. As founder Landy Ung tells us, “we…
Atlanta-based ScoutMob has cut out the high commissions and has launched as an all mobile site as it prepares for the next wave of deals beyond the world defined by Groupon and LivingSocial. The two-year-old, venture-funded site has 40 employees.…
ILM West is shaping up to be one of our biggest and best local events ever. There is so much going on. We’ve already announced some key people, like our opening keynote, Bob Pittman, CEO, Clear Channel; Zorik Gordon, CEO,…
A new partnership between Clear Channel and LivingSocial is seeking to leverage the power of on-air personalities on 500 Clear Channel radio stations. The personalities will rap about the deals in unscripted segments. It would be interesting to know what…
