Making a local call

I was in London last night listening to (and meeting some) webby entrepreneurs discussing the best way to capitalise on the "long tail" of "local on the fixed and mobile web".  This was my first attendance at a mashup event and there was a good mix of speakers.  Reassuringly, even though the event was hosted by Simmons & Simmons, there seemed to be more business and ideas people than service providers, which tends to make for a more interesting evening.

Businesses trying to capitalise on the "local" market who spoke last night included welovelocal, qype and Touch Local.  One chap I was speaking to pointed out how similar the offerings are from the competitors in the "local" space (to use the VC lingo) - and that a networking event was always going to be slightly guarded on the subject because the businesses would all keep their trump cards close to their chests.  As if to justify this, Simon Grice gave a taster about his new "belocal" business, launching later this year.  All we heard was that it would focus on local people, places and events.

I admit that I couldn't readily identify what was going to make any one of the businesses succeed ahead of the others; there may be subtleties in their business models that escaped me, but it seemed that they all "differentiate" themselves by deploying user generated content through a community where users build trust, as well as getting buy-in from the businesses.

I have the impression that given the similarities between the businesses - and the number of people who said last night they'd welcome discussions off-line - sorting out their "partnering"/licensing and collaboration arrangements will be key - but the winner will be the the one that gets the most active user base the quickest.  Or Google, if it sorts out the business search data on Google Maps.

Comments

[Philip]

Third time round for Simon as in my blog at http://cambridgecluster.com/?p=26. Let us hope that it is new idea unlike the others you mention and all goes well for him this time and for his investors. Great blog.

[Simon Grice]

Hi, thanks for the mention. If you'd like to track our progress we're at http://blog.belocal.com/ - thanks, Simon