As the two-day MobileBeat 2010 conference wraps, we round up three highlights from the LBS conversation.
1. Location-based services need brands more than brands need them
As we’ll argue in our forthcoming whitepaper, success of LBS as a marketing channel will rely heavily on big brands activating it. This is clearly in their interest because it’s a powerful channel, but the value exchange between brands and LBS must be acknowledged.
Another great point in this piece is about fragmentation.
As Jacobsen sees it, one challenge is the fragmentation of location-based services right now. With dozens of companies working in the sector, brands are still in an experimental phase. “Ultimately, there will be only a few select winners of that space. Brands want to work with companies that have a sales force, and some of the companies are better at it, like Yelp, which has a dedicated sales force. When a startup grows enough to afford to have a sales force, that’s when their chances increase,” Jacobsen said.
Fragmentation in LBS will only become more pronounced. Sure, there will be big players, but there will also be countless mid- and small-sized players because location i.e. the real world is also fragmented. The model to follow with LBS is not social networking (read: Facebook) but rather publishing. In which case LBS providers of all sizes might end up outsourcing some of their sales activity to companies that specialize in selling and leveraging the space.
2. AppCityLife puts city guides, local promotions in your pocket
AppCityLife is currently a guide to Albuquerque, NM. While the company plans to expand to other cities, it’s quite possible that it could survive (much like a local newspaper) as a small, standalone business. It could have more users in Albuquerque than Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, and Brightkite combined because they may choose to put 100% of their resources into Albuquerque. Which makes AppCityLife much more attractive to an advertiser trying to reach residents or specific demographics in Albuquerque.
3. Location-based checkins could soon be automatic
Keith Lee, CEO of location-based game service Booyah said that manual check-ins to location-based services could be on their way out, to be replaced by automated check-ins.
This is certainly the direction checkins will take. However, we first need more accurate geopositioning technology so we’re not inadvertently checking into strip clubs. Next, we have to overcome the privacy issues. This can happen on a user-by-user basis after so many manual checkins. Becoming comfortable with being automatically checked in will take time. Lastly, there is nothing wrong with a manual checkin. It demonstrates engagement, which signals permission on the part of the consumer and opens the door for the marketer. The auto checkin with corresponding ad message could be the equivalent of popup ads. If I want to click on an ad, I’ll click on an ad. I don’t need the site (or location) to do it for me.
