BIA/Kelsey ILM: 10

Yahoo Charges Into The Local Mobile Space

Yahoo Local VP Matt Idema during his presentation at BIA/Kelsey's Interactive Local Media conference called the local mobile market “one of the most explosive areas of opportunity” today and highlighted Yahoo's new hyperlocal service for community news and shopper discounts.
NetNewsCheck,

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Shoppers are increasingly looking for activities and deals in their own backyards, creating “one of the most explosive areas of opportunity” for business in 2010, Matt Idema, vice president of Yahoo Local told attendees at this week’s Interactive Local Media conference here.

Analyzing the impact of local searches can help small businesses measure the success of their advertising campaigns in a very tangible way, Idema said. “Somebody walking into your store who has already purchased your product, even at a discount, is a lot easier to understand and track than clicks on a display ad or on a search ad.”

He added: “This market is growing incredibly rapidly and it’s just getting started.”

Research shows that consumers are increasingly conducting local-focused searches on smartphones and other mobile devices, Idema said, adding Morgan Stanley forecasts that smartphone shipments will outstrip PC and tablet shipments in less than two years.

Local mobile advertising is also poised to boom five-fold from about $400 million to $2 billion by 2014, according to industry analyst BIA/Kelsey.

While pioneering deal-of-the-day Web site Groupon leads the local search niche right now, “the market is by no means efficient,” Idema added. “We think there is a ton of opportunity to scale this business over the next couple of years.”

To capture more of the local mobile market, Yahoo is developing a super-local consumer Web site, featuring community news and shopper discounts. The new site uses Yahoo's geo-informatics and content enrichment platforms -- including Where On Earth and Placemaker -- to identify and geo-tag news items appearing on every page down to the neighborhood level.

The site is being tested in 30 markets, fueled with items from Associated Content, the startup online community content provider that Yahoo acquired earlier this year for $100 million.

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