James Sanders, head of Channel Partnerships, Google Asia Pacific, will keynote the first day of ILM Asia, a conference that BIA/Kelsey and ADPAI are jointly producing Oct. 25-26 in Singapore. The event will attract directory publishers, as well as new…
Google’s march into local reached another milestone today with the acquisition of Zagat, a major international provider of high-end restaurant and lifestyle reviews in 100-plus cities. Zagat remains a major player in a reviews space it pioneered in 1979. In…
Sometimes, you reach a point where you think all the newspapers should just combine their audiences and online advertising efforts and be smart, big, technologically savvy and competitive with everyone else. Like the combined effort on Cars.com, for instance. That’s…
Groupon has postponed its IPO roadshow and is re-evaluating the timing of its IPO on a “week by week” basis, according to The Wall Street Journal. To us, the delay is not really a surprise. The company has been hit…
I’ve been intrigued by AmEx’s sponsored ads on Facebook promising $5 off for a $20 purchase at Whole Foods. So I signed up for AmEx’s program, which is a JV with Foursquare. Signing up for the program is a little…
Angie’s List issued an S-1 this week as it seeks to raise $75 million from an IPO. The S-1 is full of details about the 16-year-old service reviews company. Its massive, $60 million national ad campaign over the past 18…
The Yellow Pages industry is taking an aggressive stance in its fight against the San Francisco opt-in ordinance. The industry, led by the Local Search Association, has filed a motion for preliminary injunction to prevent the ordinance from taking effect.…
Todd Rose, VP of business development at AT&T interactive, has been added to the lineup of speakers at BIA/Kelsey's upcoming DMS ’11 event (Sept. 20-22, in Denver). Deals will be the topic of our executive interview with Rose on…
BIA/Kelsey is expanding the geographic focus of its conference business with the addition of ILM Asia 2011, which takes place Oct. 25-26 Singapore. The event is a joint production of BIA/Kelsey and the Asian Directory Publishers Association. ILM Asia will…
Facebook and Yelp are downsizing their separate deals initiatives after launching them with some fanfare. Facebook is now limiting its deals to users who check in to businesses, and Yelp is sharply reducing the number of deals it features, while…
Should we be mentioning AmazonLocal in the same list of erstwhile “Groupon killers” as Facebook Deals, Google Offers, AT&T offers and others? As the online retail giant launches its 30th local site -- starting in Boise in June and now…
Welcome to the first of our new (still experimental) video series where BIA/Kelsey analysts discuss news and events from the worlds we cover. The item of the day is of course Steve Jobs' resignation as CEO of Apple. Watch the…
Fresh on the heels of the sale of Backyard, a local offers company to Pixelfish, entrepreneur Steve Espinosa has assembled a new team to develop “Appetizer,” a mobile-centric service that enables restaurants to offer instant deals via push notifications. Using…
While this news has been out for a little while, we thought it was interesting that a company with powerful TV assets would initiate a deal with a company that provides high-quality, affordable video commercial content for local advertisers. After…
The transfer of reward points and offers from print receipts and clipped newspaper pages to the cloud is expected to be a big part of promotional media’s next wave. But some merchants seem to be deliberately dragging their feet. CVS,…
SinglePlatform, which places restaurant search info such as menus, specials and photos on search engines and social and mobile media, has raised $3.25 million. The new raise is led by DFJ Gotham Ventures with participation from New World Ventures, First…
The appeal of real-time promotions allowing SMBs to add or update a sale or special offer on the fly is fairly apparent. It is a segment that’s been chased after by such players as Google, Yext and others. Add Chalkboard…
Specialized verticals are a major part of the new marketplaces environment. One vertical we like is TeachStreet, a portal that helps consumers find teachers, and then helps sign them up and process payments. Along the same lines is TakeLessons, a…
Online retail spending reached $37.5 billion, up 14 percent from a year ago, according to comScore's latest quarterly study. Highlights from comScore's study include: The 14-percent growth in the quarter was primarily a function of an increase in the number of…
Internet display and text advertising are great. But nothing really matches video for engagement and open rates. A number of players are specializing in SMB video. A new company, Webshoz (pronounced “Web shows”) is focused on presenting an onscreen “bar”…
