The idea of an online marketplace has continued to evolve dramatically in 2011. With the emergence of deals, we now have full-fledged interactive local commerce in place, in addition to advertising.

It seems that everyone has jumped into the pool. Where Marketplaces had previously been dominated by players such as AutoTrader, eBay and OpenTable, everyone from Facebook to Foursquare to Visa has developed non-advertising (or advertising +) Marketplaces strategies. As we approach our year-end ILM West conference, what can we expect for 2012?

Here are some of our topline “predictions”:

1. Amex, MasterCard and Visa along with banks will seek to differentiate themselves from others by making key acquisitions in the vertical and mobile space during 2012.

2. Smartphones will increasingly be seen as transactional tools for food ordering and other services. In many cases, transactions will prove to be the real road to mobile adoption, more than apps and content.

3. Point and rewards/membership programs will evolve for local shopping, with more companies trying to rope-in frequent, high-value buyers as members that have minimum purchasing requirements. The prototype, followed by LivingSocial and others, are credit card promotions and Amazon Prime.

4. EBay will continue building its international classifieds business, and will extend into local retail via Milo. But inventory (or eBay) won’t reach deep into the SMB space in 2012. They’ll mostly focus on larger retail sites.

5. Review sites such as Yelp are currently one size fits all. But they’ll be increasingly differentiated by targeting and social technologies that better personalize reviews and other content, and move into transactions/reservations as well.

The post Topline ‘Local Marketplace’ Predictions for 2012 appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Next month, BIA/Kelsey will hold its annual Marketplaces 2010 Conference in San Diego. As always, it will have a focus on evolving local online business models and vertical segmentation. Much of the attention throughout the conference will be on the related opportunities for mobile content distribution and advertising.

In addition, we’ll have a dedicated mobile focus on day 2 of the show with the continuation of our signature “superforum” format. It’s a two-hour track (but not a breakout) with a series of segments that represent the topics most deserving of our attention.

We’ll mix it up with presentations, demos and deep discussions on what’s working and not working in the quickly changing space. To kick it off, we’re excited to have Loopt CEO Sam Altman talk about the company’s many steps to evolve as a mobile social utility and local advertising platform.

Many other companies are likewise represented that we’ve discussed here over the past few weeks and months. Below are the session descriptions and links to related posts. See the rest of the speaker lineup, agenda and registration on the Marketplaces 2010 site. Hope to see you there.

Mobile Superforum: Day 2: March 23, 2010, 1:30 pm — 3:15 pm

Introduction & BIA Kelsey Data

Kickoff Address: Loopt Evolves With a Changing Mobile Environment

• Sam Altman, Cofounder and CEO, Loopt

Making Mobile Work for Verticals: Product Showcase

• Scott Jampol, Senior Director, Consumer Marketing, OpenTable
• Alexander Muse, Cofounder, Big in Japan (ShopSavvy)
• Eric Singley, Mobile Product Manager, Yelp
• David Sturtz, Cofounder and CEO, RepairPal

Down to Business: Monetizing Mobile & Local

• Steve Larsen, CEO, CallSpark
• Alec Andronikov, CEO, MoVoxx
• Craig Hagopian, President, V-Enable

Recent BIA/Kelsey Writings on SuperForum Companies

OpenTable Goes Mobile, Part II: 2 Million Served

More Mobile Local Targeting From MoVoxx

Loopt Goes Further Down the Local Path

Confessions of a Mobile Shopaholic: A Conversation With Big in Japan

RepairPal in $4 Million Round

‘Call Rank’? CallSpark Leverages Smartphone Features for Mobile Directories

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