The Pokémon Go craze has hit around and in my home with my teenager on Twitter for tips and cheats. According to SimilarWeb, more than 60% of US users who have downloaded the app use it daily, and SimilarWeb estimates Pokémon GO’s…
It appears that reality is meeting the hype around conversational commerce. As we've covered, massively popular social messaging apps like Facebook messenger are evolving from peer-to-peer use to commerce. Though I'm bullish on that concept, one question has been context:…
Small businesses are beginning to adopt mobile apps to their marketing strategies with 4% of SMBs in our Local Commerce Monitor™ say they use a mobile app in their advertising and marketing strategies. In a recent Clutch study, "Mobile Apps…
Even as messaging apps and chat bots take over the world, people still have a biological urge to communicate by voice. This applies to commerce, especially where there is complexity. And complexity tends to happen in high-consideration, high-value products like…
Messaging apps and chat bots are all the rage. They were a highlight at Microsoft's recent Build conference; Kik's bot store announcement last week; and they could dominate Facebook's F8 developer conference this week. If you have no idea what I'm talking…
Google has been fighting a battle with the world of apps. As we covered in a recent white paper, a mobile world dominated by apps causes browser-based experiences to recede. And the latter is where Google hangs its hat --…
It’s late, you’ve returned to your car after an evening ballgame to find the tire is flat. What do you do? With parking place reservation app ParkWhiz, a Chicago-based iOS and Android developer, the answer is now embedded in the same app you used to find and book the parking spot. The company has partnered with Urgent.ly, which provides roadside assistance to drivers, to offer Urgent.ly services in its app, at the touch of a button. ParkWhiz app users get immediate help and the company shares part of the revenue generated by Urgent.ly for the referral.
Today is the day. Mopocalypse has been the subject of tech world chatter for the past few months, and even PSA-type articles in mainstream media like USA Today: "Make sure your mobile site is ready." For those unfamiliar, Google in…
If that headline is foreign language to you, don't feel bad. Two apps -- Meerkat and Periscope -- have taken over tech-world chatter on insider networks such as Product Hunt. Twitter just validated them further by buying Periscope for $100…
Scheduling/booking is coming into its own as a key feature for SMBs, as more and more businesses tie their marketing and promotions to open slots in their schedule. Key companies in the space include Full Slate (recently acquired by Intuit,)…
We're now 30 days into Foursquare's "unbundling" and launch of its new Swarm app. The move was pretty contentious, including lots of industry chatter and punditry. Asif Khan and I discussed it on stage last month at BIA/Kelsey's Leading in…
During his kickoff keynote today at Leading in Local: The National Impact, Foursquare VP of Sales Rob Wilk asserted that his company sits at the intersection of interest and discovery. This has remained unchanged since its 2008 launch at SXSW…
XappMedia might be a company you haven't heard of, but that could change soon. It has spent the past few years pioneering a new ad format that prompts users to engage through voice commands. It's well suited for lots of…
XappMedia might be a company you haven't heard of, but that could change soon. It has spent the past few years pioneering a new ad format that prompts users to engage through voice commands. It's well suited for lots of…
Like we do every January, BIA/Kelsey analysts huddle to formulate predictions for the coming year in respective areas of domain expertise. Earlier today, we released a report that highlights picks across local media coverage areas, and Thursday we'll do a…
Often we'll cover mobile apps that actually utilize the form factor (portability, location, camera, accelerometer, etc.). Not often enough, we'll cover apps that accomplish some degree of social good. Sometimes we'll hit up both, like with Good Guide or City…
