Why Groupon Is Poised For Collapse. Editor’s note:This guest post is part of an in-depth series looking at the daily deal industry written by Rocky Agrawal, an entrepreneur who has worked on local products since 1995. Read Part I, Part II, and Part III also. He blogs at reDesign and Tweets @rakeshlobster. Imagine you’re a small business owner. You have to choose between two propositions: You can pay $62,500 for marketing.
I’ve been working on local for a long time and I know it’s hard to get small businesses to spend money on advertising. There’s no way a business will sign up for #1. Except they are. Although they sound completely different, #1 and #2 are really the same—it’s the Groupon business model. Businesses are being sold incredibly expensive advertising campaigns that are disguised as “no risk” ways to acquire new customers. Groupon is not an Internet marketing business so much as it is the equivalent of a loan sharking business. In many cases, running a Groupon can be a terrible financial decision for merchants.
BIA Kelsey - Press Releases. Press Release BIA/Kelsey Forecasts U.S. Local Digital Ad Revenues to Nearly Double to $42.5B by 2015 from $21.7B in 2010 The firm's newly released U.S. Local Media Annual Forecast indicates digital media will represent 23.6 percent of all local advertising by 2015 CHANTILLY, Va. and BOSTON, Mass. (March 21, 2011) - Local advertisers continue their steady migration to digital media platforms, according to BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. As digital media — delivered to consumers through mobile, Internet or other electronic methods — continues to gain traction with local advertisers, BIA/Kelsey predicts it will represent 23.6 percent of all local ad spending by 2015. “As the business climate improves and advertisers step back into the market, they are gravitating to digital options that perhaps were not as mature before the recession began,” said Tom Buono, chief executive officer, BIA/Kelsey.
BIA/Kelsey reports among the key drivers of this year’s forecast are: BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. BIA/Kelsey U.S. Share of Ad Spending by Medium - July 2009. Citibank Survey Reveals Small Businesses Not Joining Social Medi. NEW YORK, Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Few small business owners and managers are joining the consumer trend towards increasingly using social networking websites and services, according to a new Citibank / GfK Roper survey.
According to the survey of 500 small business executives across the United States, 76 percent have not found social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to be helpful in generating business leads or for expanding their business during the last year, while 86 percent say they have not used social networking sites to get business advice or information. The survey found that general search engine sites such as Google and Yahoo! Trump small business-focused sites and the WSJ.com as destinations for small business owners to seek business advice or information. 61 percent of respondents say they rely on these search engine sites.
About Citibank © 2009 Citigroup Inc. SOURCE Citibank RELATED LINKS. Industry Players Weigh Business Models for Mobile Search « Yello. The always hot topic of mobile search was discussed this afternoon during the session “Mobile Search and Yellow Pages: The Business Model”, moderated by Mike Boland, Senior Analyst and Program Director, Mobile Local Media at BIA Kelsey.
Following yesterday’s discussion of mobile apps, today’s session took a deeper look into the business of mobile local search. Panelists discussed what their companies are doing in this space, and offered insights into how their businesses are operating and monetizing mobile local search. Deborah Eldred, director of mobile and personalization at R.H. Donnelley, highlighted the explosion of smart phone growth and the increased reach of mobile Web. Peter Schwab, director, mobile products at Idearc Media, shared his top ten list for what Idearc is doing to drive revenue with their mobile products. Rounding out the panel was David Pearce, head of mobile services, Yell Group, which brought an international perspective. Be Sociable, Share! Analysis: GOOG/Yelp Deal Focuses On Next Big E-Commerce Battlefi. Posted by Tom Foremski - December 18, 2009 Techcrunch reports that Google [GOOG] is about to acquire Yelp, the local restaurant and store reviews site for as much as $500 million.
Comscore puts worldwide traffic at nearly 9 million monthly unique visitors, and it has been growing fast - the company says its real numbers are more like 25 million monthly uniques. Yelp has whispered that 2009 revenues will be around $30 million and are expecting $50 million or so in 2010. Foremski's Take: If Techcrunch's figures are correct this is a very high valuation for Yelp. Yelp, which depends upon user generated reviews, has done well in San Francisco and a few other large metropolitan areas. The way to deal with this growing mass of information would be to use a search engine to sort through this huge pool of data. Google is more likely going after the advertising relationship that Yelp has with local merchants. Craigslist offers local store listings and reviews. Yell shares tumble 10% as new deadline set - Times Online. The Praized Blog » Blog Archive » The Globe & Mail Goes Negative.
Low Growth, High Value for Local Online Ads. According to Borrell Associates’ “2010 Outlook: Local Interactive Advertising” report, local online advertising spending is set to slow significantly from previous levels of growth. In 2009, local online ad spending is predicted to reach $14.2 billion, up 12% over 2008. 2010 will see just 5% growth, while over the past five years spending has increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46.5% Borrell forecasts the CAGR for the next five years will be just 2.9%, due to a slow economic recovery and the approaching saturation of the online category of local ad spending.
This year, online makes up 13.8% of local spending. Borrell expects that share to reach 16% in 2013. At the same time, local is becoming an increasingly important part of online advertising. comScore, in a study of four markets, found that local ads made up about 10% of online display advertising. Keep up on the latest digital trends. Check out today’s other article, “Bigger Banners, Richer Media.” Mobile advertising poised for substantial growth: CTIA keynote - By Dan Butcher October 8, 2009 David Ko is senior vice president at Yahoo Mobile SAN DIEGO - A Yahoo Mobile executive said that mobile advertising has been growing despite the economy during a keynote address at CTIA Wireless I.T.
& Entertainment 2009: Mobile Business. Yahoo also unveiled the next phase in its efforts to deliver personally relevant Internet experiences to mobile users worldwide by showcasing the new Yahoo mobile homepage during the keynote address. The presentation covered the growth of mobile Web usage and Yahoo’s various ad-supported mobile properties, including search, applications and the mobile Web site. “Many of the barriers that have hindered mobile growth are starting to break down,” said David Ko, senior vice president at Yahoo Mobile, Sunnyvale, CA. “Challenges remain, but the mobile ecosystem has gotten better. “The economy has been a challenge, but mobile advertising has been growing and will continue to grow substantially over the next few years,” he said.
Mr. Mobile And Social Platforms Want To Be The King Of Local Search. We’ve been saying for a while that ‘local’ is going to be one of those ‘next big things’, and the win by Red Beacon at TechCrunch 50 has been something of a clarion call for this. Now a new study from TMP Directional Marketing has come out with some interesting data to back this up. The study shows that the web generally, but in particular mobile and social network search, are increasingly factors fueling growth in the overall search market. This grew to 21.9 billion total US searches in June 2009, a year-on-year increase of 31%. In particular 4% of ‘young people’ do their searches for local information on social sites like Facebook.
That figure can only grow: It’s interesting that traditional directories remain strong. Anyhoo, more interestingly, mobile search is booming, with 32% of searchers with internet-capable cellphones now searching for local business information, an 11% increase from 2008. [Hat tip to Marketing Vox] Local Search Shifts to Online, Mobile Platforms. Internet search engines and print directories are the primary sources for finding local business information and account for 31% and 28%, respectively, of all local searches conducted in the US, according to a study from TMP Directional Marketing (TMPDM) and comScore, Inc. The annual study, which examined the year-over-year growth of local search and the shifts in consumer behavior and media usage, also found that though local search is definitely moving in a digital direction, online and offline media still work together to play differerent roles in the consumer research and purchase process, MarketingCharts writes.
Interactive Media a Growing Force Among the sources for local business information, local search sites increased in usage, from 11% in 2008 to 12% in 2009. Also, internet Yellow Pages (IYP) sites gained ground, from 19% usage last year to 21% this year, while print directories declined 3%. Mobile Search Takes Off Additional mobile search findings: Additional study findings: Two TMP Directional Marketing Entries Named Finalists of the ad: TMP Directional Marketing Study Reveals Local Search Changing With Interactive Media, Indicates Consumer Search Behavior and Media Usage Trends Major Findings Show Mobile Search Continues to Grow, Demand Driven by Younger Consumers NEW YORK (October 8, 2009) — TMP Directional Marketing (TMPDM), the largest local search marketing agency, released its annual local search study, commissioned by comScore, that examines the year-over-year growth of local search and the shifts in consumer behavior and media usage.
This study revealed a major movement toward interactive search channels such as Internet search engines, mobile platforms and social media. According to TMPDM’s study, the search industry overall is expanding rapidly, with the total number of U.S. searches having grown by 31 percent across all media platforms between June 2008 and June 2009 (21.9 billion total searches in June 2009).
“Each media type plays an important role in the consumer purchase process.