

Seeing Interactive (YC W10) Changes Name To OwnLocal, Launches Deals Network - answerly
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/18/seeing-interactive-changes-name-to-ownlocal-launches-hyper-local-deals-network/

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zach
Makes a lot of sense. My friend and I worked on a hyperlocal news concept with
some journalists at the LA Daily News in 2008 but just couldn't see a way to
make a business model work. We joke now that we should have realized that the
only news that readers and advertisers would have been interested in was
saving 50% or more on limited-time deals, and it would have been nice to
realize that while the paper still had a robust sales staff.

But in all seriousness, it's a perfect fit for local newspapers. Much more
efficient than a national company trying to reach into lots of markets itself.
Now that this can move beyond newspapers into just about any local outlet, the
possibilities for OwnLocal are very intriguing. Great growth potential and an
exciting product. This looks like the future of local deals.

By the way, it's a shame newspapers have no money left, or they could retool
to do some awesome targeted marketing. If they had the ability to make more
customized newspapers for some selected addresses (not just region-by-region),
they could unlock a different market for advertisers.

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aepstein
Love the new concept. My mom gets frustrated that the Groupon deals aren't
truly "local", and that makes her want to unsubscribe. You guys are in a great
position to solve this. Congrats Lloyd, Jason & Jeremy.

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jeremymims
This is certainly among the best things we can do. We view it as a complement
to all the other things we're doing to save local journalism.

You can view a deal going on for The Press-Enterprise (one of our top 100
newspaper clients) here: <http://www.pedeals.com>

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dariusmonsef
Smart move. This is probably the best thing a local paper could do to stay
relevant in the broader media scheme right now.

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Zephyrus
Exactly, Newspapers are in a prime position to leverage local confidence in
the paper "brand" to reach out to otherwise disaffected local SMB website
owners.

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retube
The problem with being hyper-local is that it requires hyper-local sales and
marketing. This is extremely time-consuming and expensive with small returns:
a hyper-local deals campaign is by definition a small one. Very, very hard to
pull off for a small business.

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jeremymims
We couldn't agree more. That's why we don't go it alone. We work with local
publications and organizations to very quickly build a sales funnel out of
existing contacts and relationships. This is the way we work for all our
products.

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olivercameron
I'm not sure I understand the differentiator between OwnLocal and Groupon.
Could someone explain, maybe with product examples? As far as I can see,
they're going "hyper-local", but what's more hyper-local than a restaurant
with 50% off a block over from my house? Maybe I missed something. Either way,
good luck OwnLocal!

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zach
As I see it, although it's essentially the same product, it's a significantly
different outlet.

The comparison I'd make is between Blockbuster and Redbox.

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klochner
With apologies for cynicism, how long will it be a viable pivot for struggling
startups to move into the daily deals space?

I've seen it 5 times now, once at the behest of the VC, and it clearly can get
you to revenue, I just don't know if it still leads to profits & scalability.

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jeremymims
Hi Kevin, this isn't a pivot at all.

It's another product we can sell to our newspaper and local organization
partners. We haven't met a newspaper yet that is happy with their daily deal
provider. They asked us if we would make a solution and we did.

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klochner
Cool, the name change made me think you were moving away from the old business
model (as did the submission title).

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dko
Nice move. Groupon may lose it's effectiveness in hyper-local markets after a
while. It just becomes too costly for markets of such a size. OwnLocal will
provide a much more sustainable option for local businesses, especially at the
price points they are charging.

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snissn
Good luck getting your site back online!

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jeremymims
Yeah, we're not too happy with Rackspace right now...

Edit: And we're back.

