GigaOM » Local listings

Yext sells pay-per-call biz to CityGrid, focuses on local business listings

Ryan Kim — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 16:32:07 +0000

Yext is unloading its pay-per-call business to IAC’s CityGrid Media to focus on the opportunity of organizing local online business listing information for small businesses and big companies. The details of the sale were not released but TechCrunch is reporting that Yext sold its Felix pay-per-call business for around $30 million.

Yext’s CEO and co-founder Howard Lerman said in a blog post that the sale was an effort to put more capital behind Yext’s PowerListings product, which syncs business location information across multiple platforms and allows businesses to easily manage their online presence. He said the idea came from Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz, who suggested he shed the pay-per-call business and use the proceeds to double down on PowerListings.

Pay-per-call has been a solid business for New York City-based Yext but its growth prospects were limited. It served businesses that paid when customers called them after seeing the merchant on directory listings or in ads. But the fastest and more promising opportunity was in PowerListings, which simplified the task of managing various online listings on sites and apps like Yelp, Citysearch, Foursquare, Yahoo Local, Mapquest and many others. Since launching a little over a year ago, PowerListings now syncs millions of updates for more than 70,000 customer locations. Its clients include tens of thousands of small businesses and 10 Fortune 100 companies.

Combined with $27 million from a recent funding round two months ago, Yext is in a good position to continue to grow its PowerListings business. It will need the money as it competes against Constant Contact, which paid $65 million in June for SinglePlatform, another New York City start-up that helps local businesses manage their online presence. The showdown highlights the growing opportunity in the local market as merchants and small businesses look for ways to advertise online and in the mobile browser and update their business information on a variety of platforms.

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With Yelp cash-rich and hungry, Qype steps up its game

Bobbie Johnson — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:00:53 +0000

European listings site Qype seems to be moving up a gear amid a growing threat from rival businesses.

In an announcement on Friday morning, the Hamburg-based business said it would be offering a free daily deal to all premium business subscribers — and used the offer to underscore its position as Europe’s leading consumer reviews site.

It has, it said, 400,000 active businesses and 860,000 places reviewed across 11 countries, and a healthy 25 million unique users each month. Even more importantly, perhaps, it said growth in advertising on Qype Mobile — which now has around 4 million users — has increased by 500 percent in the past year.

In a statement CEO Ian Brotherston was bullish about the company’s prospects.

“We are experiencing significant, yet responsible growth, thanks in a large part to our investment in mobile. We are successfully helping businesses increase their presence online and on mobile, and building a healthy business with a proven model,” he said. Our revenue growth last year was 93 per cent and we have a clear path to profitability in 2012.”

While this little tidbit of news may have a feelgood factor for the company and its customers, I think it’s clear who the real target of this publicity campaign is: Yelp.

The American listings site has been targeting Europe for several years — without massive success. But since it went public in March, in a deal that valued the company at more than a billion dollars, it has got a new weapon: a war chest of nearly $100 million.

So what does this mean for Qype? Well, it’s two years since the company took any funding — and that was a €6.5 million series B from Vodafone Ventures, Advent, Partech and Wellington. Given Brotherston’s statement, we can assume it’s close to profitability — but not quite there yet.

So it looks like the company is showing itself for a reason. Is it the company dressing itself up for another round of investment, to take on Yelp? Or is this a way of touting itself around for a sale?

If so, it seems an awfully passive aggressive way of flirting with Yelp.

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Local Ads, A Billion Dollar Biz, Some Day

Om Malik — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 14:59:06 +0000

Not a day goes by when we get pitched by one start-up or another that has a new twist on local search and listings. They all want to target the small and medium sized businesses, and tap into the billions locked up in local advertising that currently goes to non-Internet channels. Never mind that the very presence of large number of players creates more confusion.

There are many other challenges as well, and many were discussed at the Kelsey Group Interactive Local Media Conference in Los Angeles. Jonathan Weber, founder of New West said, “It is hard to get local businesses to participate, even if it is free.” Full report at Inside Chatter.

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