Socializing The Local Business', FourSqure And Groupon CEO's Talk DLD11

The CEO's of FourSqure And Groupon were interviewed at DLD11 conference in Germany. Both the companies, which has strong presence in Local Business,
Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley says that FourSqure is more than a social business, It is Social with location. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason says he does not know what Social Commerce means but say local ecommerce means a lot.
It a candid interview and and you will learn a lot about socializing Local part of the Business, here are two questions and answers, there are many more at TechCrunch.

Q: What’s the biggest misconception about Foursquare?
Dennis: The company’s size is the first. Second is that some people seem to think Foursquare is for hipsters in New York and San Francisco. That’s certainly how we got started, but we have a lot of international usage, all over the world. It’s a big surprise for us.
Q: What are the biggest challenges when growing as fast as Groupon did?
Andrew: Our growth may have been quick, but it was incremental. We started in Chicago, and it took us 5 months before our second city, and then the time shortened each time we launched in a new city. So we took our time to develop the original playbook, and we try to copy that strategy with our international expansion.
By creating a strong cultural foundation, and hiring great people and entrepreneurs. So we provide the playbook, they execute.

Google Places, The Directory For Local Businesses On The Web.

Google announced today Google Places, a place for local business to do online advertising for real time searchers on the web. Exactly what a local wants in a locality, unless he or she is searching to write a paper on philosophy.
When Google launched the Google Local Business Center, it was Google Favorite Places that guided mobile users with their unique bar codes, QR codes. I remember checking out Berkeley as seen below.

The todays announcement of Google Places introduces local search and map listings, realtime updates, custom QR codes and coupons. Business owners could even get photo shoots for businesses.
With the new model, Google compete with the likes of Twitter, FourSquare and facebook that offers location based and local information.
Business' could buy tags, for $25 a month that will direct users who search by the tag, once found they will be able to print out QR codes or coupons and find the way through Google Maps.
Again local searches seems to be focusing on quick searches. Do it to find something in a hurry and do it again if necessary. May be Google will improve it, like it did so far with the Google Places.


Official Google Blog: Introducing Google Places