location-based services and startups: trends, observations and investment themes

This information is confidential and was prepared by Yujin Chung, Simon Lu, and Gautam Tambay. It is not to be referenced, published, presented, or forwarded without their prior written consent.

Location Based Market Study:

Trends, Observations, and Investment

Yujin Chung, Wharton School of Business, MBA ‗10

Simon Lu, Wharton School of Business, MBA ‗11

Gautam Tambay, Wharton School of Business, MBA ‗10

Thanks to our sponsors and friends for all your support!

2


• Professor Rawley, Management Department, Wharton

• Steve Ennen, Wharton Interactive Media Initiative

• Jason Finkelstein, WaveMarket

• Josh Wais, Qualcomm Ventures

• Dalton Caldwell, picplz

• Frank Chen, Ronny Conway; Andreessen Horowitz

• Phineas Barnes, First Round Capital

• Rebecca Lynn, Morgenthaler Ventures

• Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures

• Tony Zhang, Khosla Ventures


Agenda

3


• What is going on with location?

• Why is location important?

• How do these startups grow?

• Where do you invest in the location category?


Location can be organized around a map;

Research focuses Above-the-Map

4


Layer Description Example

“Above the map”User-interactive layer

• Applications

• Application platforms

“On the map”Visual representation and

contextual layer

• Geo data

• Location data

• Contextual

• API‘s

“Below the map”Hardware / software

infrastructure layer

• Infrastructure

• Device

• Chipset

• Carrier


Location is on the mind of everyone, from VCs…

5


Select Invested

Venture Capital Firms

Recent Location-Enabled

Mobile Investments

Total Invested

Amount (MM)

$10.4

1.4

1.4

17.1

4.8

9.5

17.4

16.8

1.7

0.5

Source: CrunchBase.


…to the blogosphere…

6


Blog / Publication Date Comments

Jan-09 ―…millions of people are now walking around with a gizmo in their pocket

that not only knows where they are but also plugs into the Internet to share

that info, merge it with online databases, and find out what—and who—is in

the immediate vicinity… Simply put, location changes everything. This

one input—our coordinates—has the potential to change all the

outputs. Where we shop, who we talk to, what we read, what we search for,

where we go—they all change once we merge location and the Web.‖

Mar-10 ―Location-based mobile spending will hit $4 billion in 2015, up from

$34 million in 2009… commitments increasingly [allocated] to smart

phones, Kindles, iPads,

portable gaming devices and even cars. What used to be called point-of-

purchase is now called mobile advertising… mobile can be an extension

of a retailer's storefront.‖

Mar-10 To someone not in their 20s whose location generally isn‘t that interesting to

others… the idea of handing over your privacy with both hands to strap on a

digital ankle bracelet sounds profoundly unattractive… but to a younger

cohort that lives on the grid, the location of people you know and care

about is vital information, the coin of the realm.

Jan-10 Location-based ads will become mainstream as advertising and the

mobile web become location-aware. Brands will start to use location-

based apps to drive sales and marketing efforts.

Dec-09 Location, as a trend, remains on fire… And you can expect the big players

to step up their game in the space as well, as they all look to connect the

social online world with the real world — a real world that has also has a lot

of money potentially tied to location.


…to Web 2.0 incumbents

7


Company Date Event / News / Rumors

Mar-10

Dec-09

• Twitter turns on feature to directly tweet your location

• Twitter acquires Mixer Labs, parent company of GeoAPI

Mar-10

Feb-10

• ―Facebook Will Allow Users to Share Location‖, NYTimes

• Rumors circulate of Facebook ‗s potential interest to acquire Loopt

Mar-10

Feb-10

• TechCrunch reports that ―Location may get a central place in

Google‘s web search redesign‖

• Google launches Buzz (a social network with embed location)

Mar-10 • Launches sub-country Region Targeting (proximity advertising)

Jan-10 • Yelp turns on location ―Check-in‖ features


Data, technology, distribution, and access are

enabling location based services…

8This information is confidential and was prepared by Yujin Chung, Simon Lu, and Gautam Tambay. It is not to be referenced, published, presented, or forwarded without their prior written consent.

Catalyst Summary Opportunities

Improving Location

Determination

• Higher quality and

real-time data streams

Complementary

technology in the

handset (sensors)

• Smartphone adoption; location

is more useful when combined

with other media

• Novel applications

beyond web apps

Increasing adoption of

mobile internet

• 20% CAGR in Mobile Internet Users • Ubiquity of location

information

Mobile "ecosystems"/

app stores / APIs

• Centralized application stores accelerated distribution of

location-aware applications; 70% economics to participants

vs 30-50% with carrier-direct deals

• Independent

application

development

Precision (Meters) Time to Fix (Sec) Cost

100 to 5,000 10 ~$0.06 per lookup

5 to 20 1 Fixed $ per device

5169

8498

111126

US Mobile Internet Users (MM)

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013


…leading to robust market estimates

9


15,472

31,668

61,836

89,366

119,075

177,018

North American Consumer LBS Subscribers ('000s)

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

$327

$714

$1,299

$1,863

$2,043

$2,708

North American Consumer LBS Revenues (MM)

63% CAGRSubscribers

53% CAGRRevenues

Source: Gartner.

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013


Location based application development is

flowering on iPhone and Android

10


Source: Skyhook Wireless, Jan / Feb ‗10

iPhone Android


Agenda

11







Why is location so interesting?

12

Data:

Bridging online presence with physical world

Were they here before? How often?

When? Coming back?

Why did they come here? Were they

influenced? How so?

Who is here? Are they

alone? What do they share?


Real-time data in the physical world is

fragmented / incomplete, thus limiting action

• Current methods gathers limited real-time metrics and

are not obtained by smaller venues

13

Membership Cards &

Loyalty Programs

Surveys Point of Sales Systems

• Data limited to a single

environment

• High costs to implement

effectively

• Difficult to collect

without incentives or

promotions

• Data stales

• Focuses only on

transactions

• Plus similar limitations

of loyalty programs


What if we curate data which enables web

analytics to the physical world?

14

Data Types Data Aggregators Data Consumers

Web 2.0 Example

• Prior Visits

• Referrals

• Uniques

• Bounces

• Pageviews

• Session time

• Google Analytics

• Webtrends

• Alexa

• Compete

• Quantcast

• The Huffington Post

• Nestle

• Yelp

• Discount Tire

• Microsoft

Location-Based Services Example

• Total Check-Ins

• Check-Ins w/ Friends

• Check-Ins at New Places

• Check-Ins at Other Venues

• Foursquare

• Gowalla

• Google Buzz

• Twitter

• Bravo, MTV

• Marc Jacobs

• Tasti D-Lite

• Zagat

• The neighborhood bar


LBS data goes beyond coordinates and

deliver a web-like picture of behavior

15

W H E R E W H O W H A T W H E N W H Y H O W

Geo-

awareness

Social graph

and group

dynamics

Context Frequency,

time and

duration

Intent Path to arrival

and path to

exit

• Fixing on

latitude and

longitude

coordinates

• Surfacing

traffic patterns

• Identifying

segments or

social

networks

correlated to a

location

• Uncovering

network

tightness

between

nodes in the

physical world

• Revealing the

real identity of

a location

• Attributing

location‘s

characteristics

to one‘s

behavior and

preferences

• Signaling

degrees of

loyalties

• Correlating

presence with

temporal

events and

seasonality

• Measuring

engagement

• Understanding

transactional

nature at a

location

• Maximizing

positive

incentives,

minimizing

negative

• Identifying

influences

driving traffic

• Determining

linkages

between

locations

Basic Data Rich Data


Enables the data hungry with a new tool

16

Segment Examples Illustrative Decision Makers Illustrative Outcomes

Local

Venues,

Groups,

Teams

• Establishment owners

• General managers

• Employing unique and effective

loyalty programs

Consumer

Brands

• Brand Managers

• Ad Agencies

• Leveraging a customer‘s social

capital and converting him/her

into a brand ambassador

Media and

Content

Owners

• Editors

• Marketing Directors

• Extending total engagement by

promoting physical world

interactions

Retailers • Social Media Directors

• Loyalty Program Managers

• Experimenting with cross-sell

opportunities amongst local

affiliates, new response

metrics, or real-time promotions

Events and

Destinations

• Event Organizers

• Business Development

• Enhancing customer

experience through

personalized services and

discovery

Note: Illustrative decision makers and outcomes not limited to individual segments.


Value of LBS Data to Individual Data Consumers

WHERE:

Geo-

Awareness

WHO:

Social Graph

WHAT:

Context

WHEN:

Frequency,

time and

duration

WHY:

Intent

HOW:

Path to arrival

and path to

exit

Local

Venues

Consumer

Brands

Media and

Content

Owners

Retailers

Events and

Destinations

…but each sees signals in the data uniquely

17


Thus, the data can be captured & has value,

but we lack an efficient model to generate it

18

Data TypesData

AggregatorsData Consumers

Geo-awareness

Social Graph

Context

Temporal

Intent

Path to Discovery

Local Venues

Consumer Brands

Media Owners

Content Owners

Retailers

Events

Destinations

Require

mechanism to

incentivize data

creation

+

Open platform to

encourage

volume


Multiple models are competing as the

standard to generate this data

19

Active BroadcastGame Driven

BroadcastPassive Broadcast

Description User actively notifies system

upon arriving at a location or

venue

Player notifies system of

location to enhance game

play

Location notification

secondary to primary

behavior

Example

Companies

Details • Leverages existing social

network

• Motivates location discovery

and sharing

• Competitive dynamics tied

to location, commonly

rewarding future check-ins

• Check-ins incented by

leveling-up, unlocking

rewards, or earning virtual

currency

• Other models centered on

discovery games and

recreational exploration

• Location an after-thought of

another action

• Examples primary actions

include tweeting, texting,

group chatting, scanning a

barcode or taking a photo


Conclusion #1: Location Check-Ins = Clicks

20

At critical mass, the physical world check-in becomes as telling as the online click

Classic Web Analytics LBS Equivalent

Total Visits per User Total Check-Ins per Customer

Unique Visitors / Pageviews Total New Check-Ins

Returning Visits Repeat Customer Check-Ins

Pageviews by Server Time Check-Ins by Venue Time

Bounce Percentage Sequential Check-Ins with Short Gaps

Upstream / Downstream Sites Sequential Check-Ins at local affiliates

Referrer Check-Ins driven by API or Internal Tips


Agenda

21







Data creation starts with virtual incentives but

evolves into robust user engagement

22


Intangible Content Tangible

• Check-ins

• Points

• Virtual goods

• Prestige

• Recommendations

• via location

• via social graph

• Associated content

• Photos

• Videos

• Tweets

• Discounts for

• Customer loyalty

• Recommendations

• Social strength

• Venue analytics

Incentives Development


LBS consumer value creation cycle… 3 phases

23


Consumer

LBS company

Value Provider

Location data /

Eyeballs

Intangible rewards / Content

Consumer data

Tactical benefits (coupons, discounts)

Influence immediate

purchase behavior

Improved customer service

(e.g. more conveniently

located stores)

Strategic information (e.g. consumer behavior patterns)

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 32

31


Phase 1: User engagement

24


Description

Success Factors

Eco-system opportunities

• Engage end-users through a quality incentive structure

‒ Game mechanics

‒ Social information

‒ Local content

• User engagement (get to inflexion point - first 100k users?)

‒ Understanding of social mechanics

‒ UI and design

• Monitoring quality of content

‒ Editorial quality for reviews, ensuring fairness for check-ins

• Platform (e.g., Foursquare API)

• Check-in aggregators (e.g., SocialGreat)

• Local content aggregators (e.g., Yelp)

• Geo-location enablers (e.g., Skyhook Wireless)

• Plays that leverage Foursquare and other location APIs (e.g.,

LocaModa allows venues to display check-ins on a digital out-of-home

screen, encouraging patrons to visit)

1


Phase 2: Provide tangible value to consumers

25


Description

Success Factors


• Liaise with businesses to provide coupons and discounts based on

user‘s behavior patterns

• Hence, influence immediate purchase behavior

• Business Development is key at this stage

• Focus deals on ‗benefit to user base‘ rather than revenue potential for

LBS company

• Mobile couponing (e.g., an ad network for Location-based / real-time

coupons and advertising)

2


Phase 3: The pot of gold in the data hose

26


Description

Success Factors


• Monetize the data-hose through sophisticated analytics

• Use analytics to drive strategic decisions for businesses

‒ e.g., Where should Starbucks open its next location in

Philadelphia?

‒ e.g., Dynamic pricing based on time and crowd

• Quality and completeness of data generated

• Development of the surrounding ecosystem

‒ e.g., Analytics companies that can mine this data

‒ e.g., API that other companies can user to mine the data hose

• Analytics companies – turn location data into business intelligence

‒ Localytics-like companies could move into this space

‒ e.g., Sell aggregate data about coffee drinkers in Atlanta to Peets

• Local ad campaign managers (e.g. Hootsuite)

3


Phase 3: The Foursquare dashboard for local

businesses is only the tip of the iceberg

27


Next step is to augment data stream with purchase information (e.g. Blippy)

and provide more aggregated insights to businesses

3


Intangible value to users

Content and tangible

benefits to users

Data hose: tangible

benefits to businesses

Conclusion # 2: Real, tangible gains for consumers

must follow the initial intangible incentives

28


• Virtual prizes and social

prestige are good for initial

buzz and user engagement

• Initial buzz, leader board

dynamics lead to the birth of

super users, but can be

fad-ish.

• Increasing dependence on

super-users for content,

recommendations

• Typical for user-

generated content

(e.g. YouTube, Blogs)

• Super-users need to

motivated through

tangible incentives

• (e.g., rev-share in

YouTube, mayor

discounts on

Foursquare)

• Once a stable consumer

incentive ecosystem is

created, businesses can find

value in the data hose

• Use location and behavior

data to drive tangible,

strategic value for

businesses through

analytics

2 31

Over time, users get fatigued with just intangible incentives

Focus on consumers first, business partners second (Silicon Valley adage)


Agenda

29







Above-the-Map landscape dominated by social

network apps, $97M in funding the last 3 years

30


VC Funding by Sector (2007-10)

(Total: $97M)

Source: Crunchbase directory of applications with ―location-based‖ tag

Firms by Sector

N = 68


Evaluate against data quality and data creation

31


Classic

VC FiltersData Quality and Uniqueness Sustainability of Datastream

Team • CTO / Architect

• Marketing innovation (e.g., how to

keep users engaged?)

• UI genius

• Business development focused on user

engagement

Market • Value of datastreams

• Potential for business model

(e.g., Commerce, advertising,

subscription)

• User lifetime value analysis

Marketing Strategy • User acquisition (e.g., viral loop

features)

• Engagement (e.g., check-ins, deals)

• Early user behavior understanding

• User acquisition cost analysis

• Consumption media

Technology • Database management / scalability

• Site scalability

• Heavy analytics

• Scalable for brand / venue partners

New Data

Lens


Based on our framework, Custom maps and

Gaming are attractive sectors for investigation


# of

firms

VC

Funding

Data Quality /

UniquenessValue of Data

Data

SustainabilityAttractiveness?

Advertising 3 $0.3

Commerce 11 $1.3

Communication 7 $1.4

Content 9 $23.1

Custom maps 6 $4.0

Gaming 6 $10.3

Platform 11 $18.1

Social network 15 $33.5


Why Custom Maps is so interesting


Classic


Team

• Background in custom map

development (e.g., Navteq, Google

maps, Teleatlas)

• Smart compass integration

• Clean UI

• Business development experience with top

venues

• Predictive analytics experience

Market

• Pain point: Google maps and similar

services are too broad and

contextually generalized

• Microcontent enables contextually relevant

offers and advertising

• Strong opportunity for brand enhancement

Marketing Strategy

• Focus on venue niches with long

session time (e.g., theme parks, malls,

parking garages)

• Enable quick share download for social

enhancement (e.g., group trips)

• Partnership opportunities with travel

sites and tour guide organizations

• Large venue tie-ins (e.g., Disneyland

sponsorship ―download the map right now‖)

• Big event tie-ins

• Sporting

• Concerts

• Festivals

• Conferences

Technology

• Computationally easier to control push

recommendations and offers given

limited data set

• Allows developers to focus on timed

recommendations and offers

• Build out venue service for data access and

customer activity analysis

• Scalable map creation

New Data

Lens


Out of the Custom Maps category, Micello

presents a strong fit with our investment thesis

34


Name Description

Founding

CEO

VC

funding Investors

Mapicurious Mapicurious provides point of interest collection and distribution, custom branded mapping

applications, and georeferencing services. Mapicurious.com is hub of user generated map

content.

Brad

Gilreath

N/A N/A

Micello Bringing the pulse of an indoor location where people gather - shopping mall, convention

center, hotel/casinos, theme parks, stadiums .. Micello provides a unique platform with an

interactive map of the place on your mobile device. There API‘s enable building and delivery

of rich content based on ―What‘s Happening Inside‖ a place of interest.

Ankit

Agarwal

N/A Seed

My City Way My City Way is a location-aware platform that helps discover the world around you - soon to

be available in over 40 cities around the world on a variety of mobile devices. With more than

50 hyper-local apps rolled into each city-specific guide, My City Way is a one-stop application

platform to discover, interact with, experience and share information in any city. Tailored for

use by local residents and visitors alike, My City Way is an interactive city discovery gateway

on your mobile device.

Sonpreet

Bhatia

$1M IA Ventures

FirstMark

Capital

NYC EDC

Primospot Primospot helps navigate the confusing world of urban parking, to quickly find the best place

to park.

The service is unique in that it covers on-street free and metered parking, as well as

commercial garages and even bike racks. In addition to parking locations, Primospot also

knows the rules and regulations, holiday and seasonal changes, and is able to calculate in

real-time how long a car can remain legally parked.

Michael

Hill

N/A N/A

PublicEarth PublicEarth, launched in November 2009, is a free wiki database of and about locations,

generated and updated by users. On the site, people create and maintain PlaceBook™

personal atlases - which organize and manage their personal locations for ease in sharing,

searching, travel planning and activity discovery.

Michael

Rubin

$3M Polaris

Venture

Partners

SpotScore SpotScore is a Seattle-based startup looking to make your lives easier and revolutionize the

parking industry through the use of Intelligent Parking.

N/A N/A


Why Gaming is so interesting


Classic


Team • Ex traditional or social gaming (e.g.,

Electronic Arts, Blizzard, Zynga)

• Heavy focus on UI and real-time

analytics

• Expertise in building great gameplay

• Thoughts on expanding to ―normals‖

regarding easy gameplay

Market • Opportunity with ―micro-gaming‖

concept where session times are

<5min

• Initially drive engagement via virtual

goods and social leaderboard

competition

• Ability to incorporate venues and objects as

context for gaming (e.g., ―Real life Grand

Theft Auto‖)

• Replace virtual upgrades with actual

products

• License for interruptive advertising as long

as in context of the game

Marketing Strategy • Utilize open API‘s of other services to

promote game

• Cost per Installation model and

cross linking

• Sharing with other prominent apps

• Enable team / social dynamics to

assist viral growth

• Location trigger upgrades / virtual goods in

context of gameplay

• Location trigger game installation and

sharing

Technology • Expertise in building viral loops

• Heavy data / analytics component

• Clean / robust graphics delivery

• Build out venue service to allow customized

upgrades / virtual goods within game

context

New Data

Lens


Booyah (2M users) and SCVNGR are growing

aggressively but plenty of room for more engaged

experiences

36


Name Description

Founding

CEO

VC

funding Investors

Booyah Booyah, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., is dedicated to creating new forms of

entertainment to the masses by bringing together elements of the real world and the

digital world. Booyah is defining a growing new market called Real-World Gaming.

Keith Lee $9.5 KPCB

CipherCities Citizens of Cipher Cities love playing games in everyday environments. They use the

web to build mobile adventures that they share with friends and fellow citizens.

Cipher Citizens can be game builders, players or musty lurkers. They can share game

photos, rate games and builders, and revel in the joy of location-based gaming.

Australia based

Deb Polson N/A N/A

Geocade Geocade, a social gaming platform for mobile games, enables game developers to

increase game downloads, enhance game play and create recurring revenue streams

by giving them the ability to create local leaderboards in nearly every city and town

worldwide.

Jim Caralis N/A N/A

Geolania Geolania is a massive mobile social game that uses geolocation and augmented

reality for a context gaming. It mix strategy, virtual world, LBS and social components

to create a unique mobile gaming experience.

N/A N/A N/A

Orbster Orbster is a developer and publisher of location-based games for mobile phones.

The company‘s aim is to develop and sell successful games for the growing market in

location-based content for mobile phones. The core of the online and mobile-

integrated game platform allows every player and provider of game ideas to create

location-based games for mobile phones with navigation functions such as GPS

without programming knowledge.

Georg

Broxtermann

$0.75M Seed

Scvngr SCVNGR is a location based mobile gaming platform that lets anyone, individual or

institution build awesome location-based interactive mobile games that can be played

from any cell phone.

Seth

Priebatsch

$4.8 Google

Ventures

Highland

Capital

DreamIt


Appendix

37



The datacentric approach offers a new approach on

evaluating location based startups for investment

38


Early stage (Seed, Series A) Late stage (Series B & beyond)

Team • Experience in creating processes around

• User acquisition

• User engagement

• Fast analysis / recommendation

• Fast code release background

• Manage mobile cross platform

fragmentation?

• Smart business development hires

• Engagement via promotions / hard

incentives

• Relationships with key brands

• Product development hires

• Experience creating new services

(paid / ad-based) off robust data

Market

Potential

• Value of datastreams to target verticals

• Timing data

• Venue context

• User activity

• Mix of tactical (coupons) and strategic

(new services) which solve pain points

for users

Marketing

Strategy

(Goto market)

• Clear understanding of initial target

segment

• Lightweight user engagement (check-in)

• ―Not annoying‖ game mechanics

(Growth strategy)

• Relationships with technology partners

regarding user acquisition

• Easier user interaction

Technology • Built on, not within, social media

platforms

• Zynga vs. Feedtrace

• Fast, scalable database manipulation

• Cross-database functionality - use LBS

as link to more robust forms of personal

data

• Phone number to credit card

• Ability to scalably introduce real

promotions over virtual goods

• Free donut over badge


Advertising overview


Name Description

Founding

CEO

VC

funding Investors

Cirius

Technologies

USA

The company‘s flagship product is called AdLocal, which is a location-

based mobile advertising platform that‘s currently being offered in Japan

and the USA (through Cirius USA). AdLocal makes it possible to reach

consumers with ads that take into account the physical location of users

via GPS, Cell-IDs, map coordinates and other information.

Gen

Miyazawa

Snacksquare Snacksquare is a provider of automated location based advertising via

sms text messages. Based on deep integration with the Foursquare API,

Snacksquare facilitates push marketing via SMS txt messages from local

businesses to real people and potential customers at the time and place

they are near to the venue.

Snacksquare allows merchants to create Automated Location Based

Alerts (―ALBA‖) in a similar fashion to building an email marketing

campaign in Constant Contact or Mail Chimp.

James

Gillmore

$0.03M Seed

Socialbomb Every brand manager wants to build apps that will kickstart conversations

across the world‘s Facebook pages, Twitter streams and iPhones.

Socialbomb helps developers and creatives build those apps. They

provide a single API that communicates with many social networks at

once, so developers can spend their time on the core application instead

of programing for each individual service.

The Socialbomb engine is a RESTful API that lets customers exchange

data dynamically with specific services. They push data to Facebook,

Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and other social networks, and then pull

information back into their customers‘ applications for richer features and

more meaningful analytics. The Socialbomb API can provide detailed

feedback about which content users like, comment on, and share.

Michael Dory $0.24M First Round

Capital, Rose

Tech


Commerce overview (1 of 2)


Name Description

Founding

CEO

VC

funding Investors

Anttenna Anttenna is a free mobile application that facilitates real-time, location-based, person-

to-person exchanges. By turning traditional classified listings into geo-tagged twitter

sized microlistings, Anttenna lets you quickly connect, chat in realtime (―Anttweet‖),

and exchange physical goods/services with people nearby.

Marcus

Wandell

Seed, Moritz

Looew

Chevia Chevia allows users to share knowledge about interesting local products with their

friends and relevant communities, powered by a user-generated product catalog and

a discovery engine that lets users locate and discover relevant/related products and

real-time information that are of interest, and explore things around them.

Paul Lo $0.1M Seed

Mobile Flow mobile flow enables the delivery of relevant, timely information to a consumer base

that uses mobile platforms to access product information, make purchasing decisions

and carry out transactions.

Customers can create and deliver coupons or other product purchasing incentives,

publish mobile web sites to support product promotions, enable customers to carry

out transactions whilst on the move, use multi-media messaging and mobile video to

deliver product information that is engaging and viral.

Ade

Bamigboye

Outalot Outalot is a portable resource for finding nearby restaurants, bars, shops, and

movies. Outalot‘s service is available on the web, iPhone, and mobile handsets by

visiting outalot.com.

Jesse Boyes

SkyBlox ScoutMob provides location-aware coupons, offering rapidly-expiring deals on local

food, coffee, and shops, all tailored to your location and city.

ScoutMob‘s mobile application allows the coupons to be delivered directly to the

iPhone without having to print out or download. The app enables users to:

* Store and sort local deals by newest, most popular, nearby, and hurry-you-fool-

it‘s-about-to-expire.

* Get extra incentive from these locations when you make a return visit.

* When you find a deal worth pursuing, pull it up on your screen & show your

friendly server.

$0.1M SGIO


Commerce overview (2 of 2)


Name Description

Founding

CEO

VC

funding Investors

Spreezio Spreezio is a location-based consumer service designed to bring local shoppers, merchants, and sales

reps together through personalized shopping deals.

Spreezio enables shoppers to make a deal on any product or service. Shoppers can buy what they

want, when they need it, where they are at. They are guaranteed to get the best local deals based on

value. Once they accept a deal, Spreezio lets them tell their friends via social networking sites like

Facebook and Twitter.

Todd

Chipman

VouChaCha VouChaCha is a location based, on-demand mobile application that enables users to pull personalised

vouchers and special offers for retailers within a two minute walk of their current location. For retailers

and leisure venue operators Vouchacha reacts instantly to low capacity or overstock. Enabling them to

send personalised offers to potential customers that are within a two minute walk of their venue. From

initial contact VouChaCha will bring customers to the door of retailers faster than any other type of

advertising.

Ben Brown Seedcamp

YOOSE YOOSE is the mobile coupon wallet 2.0. Everything that fills up today‘s consumer‘s wallet will be

available on his mobile phone: loyalty cards, coupons, shopping lists, and much more. This provides a

unique direct access to the consumers for product brands, retailer, transport & travel provider, mobile

network operators and others. YOOSE is the future of relationship marketing.

Christian

Geissendoerf

er

$0.04M Seed

Zollpo Wouldn‘t you want to know if there are any exciting new sales around you? Zollpo.com gives you the

power to find all these sales and more in a click away. Zollpo.com was created in order to give

customers a free access to the ―real world‘s‖ sales. Sales that unless the web, might not have been

visible.

Zollpo.com also connects Small & Medium Business with less marketing tools to their customers. In

Zollpo.com we‘ve developed a search engine to help people find on a static map, all the sales: around

them, around their work place, around their next vacation spot.

Idan Bianco

eMapia eMapia is a location based marketplace that is designed to make shopping an easy experience. We use

Google Maps technology to enable sellers (businesses or individuals) to add their items and link them to

locations they desire, which is normally where the shop or house is located.

Adel

Mohamed

Postabon Postabon is a location aware discount platform that allows users to find and share in store deals,

discounts, sales, and coupons.

Postabon uses game like incentives (followers, karma score, etc) to encourage users to be active

members of the community. Its users vote and comment on deals to collaboratively filter the content and

ensure the best deals rise to the top. They also use advanced machine learning algorithms to

recommend the most relevant deals to users based on their location, past usage history, and current

interests.

Stuart Wall $1.1M Spark

Capital


Communication overview


Name Description

Founding

CEO

VC

funding Investors

BlockChalk BlockChalk allows users to leave messages at locations in their neighborhood using their mobile

device. Described as ―the voice of your neighborhood,‖ BlockChalk encourages users to leave

notes, or ―chalks,‖ about what‘s going on in a certain location. Users can then reply to other users‘

chalks.

BlockChalk recently (as of Jan 2010) launched both an iPhone app as well as an API for

developers.

Cellflare Location Based web service that allows users to stay visually connected to each other via their

Mobile Devices. Users can view the real time status of their family and friends from any Internet

Browser (Canada based)

GeoGraffiti GeoGraffiti enables the open exchange of location-specific opinions and advice in Voice Mark form

with any phone. Users can virtually ―mark‖ real world places by publishing a Voice Mark message.

A Voice Mark™ is a short voice message captured via phone that shares information (e.g. opinions,

tips, warnings, advice) about a venue, event, promotion, or really anything else one cares to share.

Angel

HelloPulse HelloPulse matches you to other people based on the places that you spend time at, and the

activities that you love. We believe that a shared love for a bar, or a park, dog-walking or

kickboxing, is a great indicator of how two people will connect. It also makes it easy to choose a

location for a date and it makes it fit more naturally into your everyday life.

Jane

Thompson

Miselu Inc. Miselu is a voice sharing and archiving application that allows you to capture those special

moments, create comments, leave thoughts, comment on photos and more. Share your voice on

Miselu or through your social networks, blogs and email. Listen to others, follow their updates or

listen to those special moments from the past. A new paradigm in communicating via voice, Miselu

brings you a new dimension to networking.

ShortGPS Shortgps is providing an easy tool to communicate a location. With shortgps.com you can create a

location on a map and after setup the zoom scale or hybrid mode, you can add an external link.

After this, you will get a short URL to use it in Tweets or any other kind of messages where you will

tell ―where‖.

Andreas

Ebert

Hot potato Hot Potato connects friends and fans around live events.

We‘re building tools for real-time social collaboration amongst groups who share an interest in any

event or experience as it‘s happening.

Whether checking in, recording your perspective, or just enjoying others contributions, it‘s more fun

to participate in events with Hot Potato.

Justin

Shaffer

$1.42M First Round

Capital

RRE Ventures

Scott Banister


Content overview (1 of 2)


Name Description Founding

CEO

VC

funding

Investors

Inphodrive Interactive mobile platform for behind the wheel; stay online while driving Mark Heifets

NAVX NAVX sources, aggregates and distributes geolocalized content that can be used in GPS

and, more generally, in any location-aware device.

The portfolio of content includes gas prices, speedcam locations, parking spaces, wifi

hotspots, restaurants, bars, etc.

To companies, NAVX provides content that enhances their offering and allows them to

generate additional revenues through subscriptions. The content is particularly useful in

―connected devices‖ able to send and receive dynamic and relevant information through

wireless connections. NAVX has established relations with TomTom, Garmin, Mio,

Magellan, TeleAtlas, Orange and other significant players of the Navigation Industry.

Jean

Cherbonnier

Pegshot Pegshot is a mobile video/photo service used to efficiently share location-based media with

friends and family.

Pegshot is based in Boulder, CO and New York City and is a spinoff of a company widely

known in the local video space called WellcomeMat.com. Founders are Phil Thomas

DiGiulio, David Overcash and Christian Sterner.

Phil Thomas

DiGiulio

Tagcrumbs Tagcrumbs is building the infrastructure for user-generated and editorial location-based

content on mobile devices and the web.

Tagcrumbs helps people to easily remember places and share their favorites with their

friends and the world, using mobile applications and the web. Exciting locations to dive,

climb, surf or fish, stunning viewpoints or sublime architecture and great hangouts like

restaurants, bars and cafés can all be found here.

Sascha

Konietzke

Taggstr Taggstr enables you to make your world more ―taggable‖ and leave your own marks on

places around the world.

By allowing you to leave ―taggs‖ wherever you go, Taggstr enables you to leave your own

little marks. Not only is Taggstr a tagging platform, but it allows you to easily find interesting

places around you.

Alamgir

Mand

$0.05M SVASE/Cambridg

e West Ventures

Foodspotting Foodspotting is a visual local guide that lets you find dishes instead of just restaurants. It‘s

powered by Foodspotters, who can share their food photos and expertise while building a

visual collection of foods and where to find them.

Alexa

Andrzejewski

Dan Martell (seed)


Content overview (2 of 2)



CEO

VC

funding

Investors

StickyBits Stickybits brings the physical and digital worlds together with barcode stickers

which trigger audio, video, photo, and text messages when scanned. The product is

a mobile app for the iPhone and Android phones which lets users scan barcodes,

attach messages, and keep track of the stickybits left by their friends.

Billy

Chasen

$0.3M Polaris Venture

Partners; Mitch

Kapor

Mixed

Media Labs

Photo checkin Dalton

Caldwell

$0.37M TBD

Pelago Pelago‘s most recent product, Whrrl v2.0, enables storytelling in our daily lives.

Launched in March, 2009, it is a mobile and Web application that enables people to

capture and share the moments of their lives, as they happen, in story form.

Through location, photos and text updates, users can easily turn everyday life

experiences into lasting stories that can be remembered, organized and shared.

The user controls exactly who can see his or her story, ranging from total privacy to

publicly visible, including optional broadcast via status updates on Facebook and

Twitter.

Jeff Holden $22.4M

T-Venture

Bezos

Expeditions

DAG Ventures

Reliance

Technology

Ventures

Kleiner Perkins

Caufield & Byers

Trilogy Equity

Partnership


Platform overview (1 of 2)



CEO

VC

funding

Investors

Abaq.us Abaq.us delivers Abaq.us GeoWeb Services, a comprehensive, hosted

platform for both location-based social and business applications. Its

extensible, software as a service (SaaS) architecture provides users with the

ability to store, visualize, analyze, and utilize data from a variety of GPS-

enabled mobile devices.

Shailendra

Jain

Centrl Centrl also has partnerships with Navteq (part of Nokia), Citysearch and

Valassis to bring location-based coupons to its users.

Through layers, Centrl provides its users access any data source from the

web, such as Cityserach, Yelp, Wikipedia, Oodle, Qype, etc.

Murat

Aktihanoglu

$0.5M TwoBuds

Holdings

Latitude

Sedona

Latitude Sedona is a producer and distributor of always fresh, interactive, geo-

localized and contextual tourism contents and services. Our services are

available via mobile applications for the general public and through highly

customized web services on a B2B basis

Juliette

Leygues

LocationGuru LBS platform with api / developer access for mobile operator partners Shaheer

Ahmed

Locomatix Locomatix has developed an advanced solution for enabling next generation

location-based and contextual services that can be deployed in a variety of

applications. Utilizing our patent-pending, next-generation Location-Aware

Services (LAS) streaming technology, Locomatix enables innovative services

across many industries and market sectors.

Jignesh Patel


Platform overview (2 of 2)



CEO

VC

funding

Investors

Miraveo Miraveo‘s spontaneous area network (SPAN) technology provides local presence

information, enables wifi-enabled devices to connect and network easily, facilitating dynamic

and spontaneous mobile communities.

When integrated with mobile applications, our small footprint, low power client extends the

social networking ―lifestyle‖. It offers a high bandwidth, low latency platform for mobile multi-

player games and unlocks the potential of local news, advertising, classifieds and other

proximity based services.

Mario

Nemirovsky

MobGeo Ltd The MobGeo platform is an enterprise level, cloud based software solution that allows you to

operate a complete, interactive mobile channel covering everything from vanilla SMS to

sophisticated mobile applications, wrapped in a single campaign and reporting engine.

Simon Davis

Monadik Monadik is a self-funded, privately held company that specializes in location-based service

and platform development.

Monadik‘s first product is ―dokiru?‖, a location-aware service that helps users discover the

world around them. It encourages users to go places and connect with other people. Users

can send messages, share their photos, visit (or ―check-in‖ to) places and see who else is

visiting, and participate in discussions at places.

ShowNearby ShowNearby is positioned as the worldwide company to define prevalent location-based

services and information.

ShowNearby‘s vision is to provide location-based technologies that enhance the way we live

and breed future generations of people who are truly aware of their surroundings.

Douglas Gan $0.17M Angel, Grant

WaveMarket With platforms and applications designed to meet the needs of both consumers and

enterprise customers, WaveMarket Inc. is a pioneer in location-based solutions.

Tasso

Roumeliotis

$17.4M Saturn Venture

partners

Draper Fisher

Jurvetson

BlueRun

Ventures

Yeerp Working across many sectors of industry, from SMEs, to multi-national enterprises, to public

sector organizations, we provide to our customers a comprehensive set of tools and the

international expertise they need to advance their use of technology, switch on new

revenues, optimize business processes and open up new marketing channels.


Social Network overview (1 of 3)


Name Description

Founding

CEO

VC

funding Investors

A Space

Apart

A Space Apart is a location-based social media platform for wherever people gather, be it cafe

or convention, office or airplane.

A Space Apart helps people interact with others and their environment by providing simple,

familiar social tools hosted on a customized Web portal. The platform is supported by

advertising and subscription fees.

Jason /

Gretchen

Goodrich

0.025 Seed

Buzzd buzzd (www.buzzd.com) is the real-time social city guide for your mobile device.

- Delivers up-to-the-minute reviews and ratings from friends, buzzd members, and other real-

time content from twitter, gowalla, foursquare, loopt, brightkite, etc.

Aggregates static content feeds from Zagat, Flavorpill, Citysearch, Metromix, Upcoming, and

many more

- Real-time activity drives users to view and act upon local inventory

Nihal Mehta 3.2 Greycroft, Monitor,

Blackberry,

Qualcomm

Dailyplaces

GmbH

We provide at dailyplaces a fully location based microblogging service. With dailyplaces you

can setup your individual blogging website to add and to share any kind of Point of Interest

(POI). We provide an iPhone APP to create POIs too.

Andreas

Ebert

0.025 seed

Flaggpole Flaggpole is a place-based social network that connects people through places that are

important to them.

The important places Flaggpole organizes around could be a postal code, neighborhood, park,

church, school, club or business. After identifying a place, users can form virtual communities

related to the place‘s function and use both micro-messaging and Twitter integration to

organize meaningful interactions.

Nate

Heinrich;

Aaron

Donsbach

Foursquare Users share their location with friends by ―checking in‖ via a smartphone app or by text

message. Points are awarded for checking in at various venues. Users can connect their

Foursquare accounts to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, which can update when a check

in is registered. By checking in a certain number of times, or in different locations, users can

collect virtual badges.

Dennis

Crowley

1.35 Union Square

Ventures

O'Reilly AlphaTech

Ventures

Jack Dorsey

Kevin Rose

Ron Conway




Name Description

Founding

CEO

VC

funding Investors

Friendticker friendticker is a location-based mobile platform using gaming strategies and virtual check-ins

to bring people and venues together.

friendticker is used with smartphones to check in, share activities and recommend venues in

a city users like. People are rewarded for their achievements in form of points and virtual

items. Additionally, collected items can be exchanged for real-life goods, partly sponsored by

brands.

Uwe

Sandner

Gowalla Gowalla, also known as Alamofire, creates games and game-like experiences for the social

web.

Gowalla is a location-based social networking game launched as a public beta in March 2009.

Gowalla uses a large catalog of virtual goods to encourage its users to go places and meet

people.

Josh

Williams

10.4 Greylock Partners

Shasta Ventures

Maples Investments

Kevin Rose

Chris Sacca

Jason Calacanis

Shervin Pishevar

Ron Conway;

Founders Fund;

Alsop Louie Partners

Locassa Locassa is a new community and social discovery tool which helps you explore the things

around you, share your local knowledge with others and benefit from local knowledge and

experience that others have to offer you.

Simon Lee

Maptales Maptales is a location based social broadcasting platform with emphasis on real life

experiences in sport, travel & sight seeing.

Mobile apps from Maptales help you to capture, edit and share your life whenever you are out

and about using geo tagged pictures, GPS tracks, posts or suggested waypoints.

Maptales is a great way to explore user generated experiences around you or from all over

the world using either a 2D map or 3D augmented reality player on your smartphone or

simply by browsing through experiences on the website.

Chris J.

Dankl

Meet Now

Live

Meet Now Live is a location based, mobile social network focused on nightlife venues and

events in New York City. Users ―broadcast‖ their location from bars, clubs and lounges via

their mobile phone to provide real-time information to the network.

Michael

Davis




Name Description

Founding

CEO

VC

funding Investors

Mobcast Mobcast is a location-based mobile Facebook application designed to help flash mobs

(or any group of friends) coordinate while on the move.

Users can view the locations of their Facebook friends on a map and watch as they

walk around in near-realtime. By posting Mobcasts, users can update their Facebook

status and push notify their friends of where they are going, what they are doing, and

why their friends should join them. Replies are also pushed, providing an easy way to

self-organize a flash mob in minutes.

Nikolai

Sander

Zedmo Zedmo lets you find events and social topics. You can discover these Zedmo

―channels‖ according to their location, popularity, or topic.

Noah

Bloom

Seed, Bootup

labs

sleeq A Location Based Service from Germany. Founded in 2006, the first version focused on

a Check-In Service, calendar for planning events with your friends etc..

Extended in 2009 with real time information (status messages, photos and other

activities), like a live ticker about what is going on at your favorite locations and among

your friends.

loopt Loopt is a location-based social mapping service that allows individuals to use their

location to discover the world around them – enabling them to find and enjoy the

friends, places, and events that mean the most right here and now using their mobile

phones. Users can also check in to locations, share location updates, tips, photos and

comments with friends and share across online social networks, communities and

blogs.

Sam

Altman

17.1 New Enterprise

Associates

Sequoia Capital

Brightkite Brightkite is a location based social network based in Denver, CO. In real-time it lets

people see where their friends are, share their experiences and make new friends

based on the places that they frequent. Businesses and venues can capture and

syndicate the activity around them via their website, and RSS. Brightkite can be used

via the web, text messaging, e-mail, WAP, and the iPhone, giving users an immersive

experience.

Jonathan

Linner

1.42 Techstars,

Draper Richards

Jurvetson

location-based services and startups: trends, observations and investment themes

Technology

location of people

recent location

location changes

location category

location important

locationbased apps

locationbased ads

location checkin features