Airbnb (see my previous article on Airbnb for a description of the business) creates a new revenue layer in real estate that supplements cash flow for property owners (and even renters). Yes, vacation rental sites like HomeAway and VRBO have established rental classifieds system but they operate as advertising media and require upfront annual subscription [...]
Airbnb, according to Techcrunch and others, is planning a mega-round raise at a $1 billion+ valuation, and validated social travel in one swoop. It redefines what a “hotel room” is, even one year ago the only viable short term rental space for the masses. Airbnb allows anybody to rent out living space – a refurbished basement, [...]
With Facebook Deals and Google Offers launching the exact same service as Groupon (and have been tagged “Groupon Killers“), pundits are questioning Groupon’s sustainability and market share. Deals have become commodities, and Groupon will certainly lose market share simply due to the growing volume of deals being distributed by a wider array of publishers. So [...]
Local community news has always been hard to produce profitably with scale. Local news is only relevant to those who live within the community, and it makes cost per thousand based advertising models untenable when readership may log in the hundreds. Without a revenue model to hire editors and writers, the cheapest way to source [...]
Another societal sea change is evolving. People now trust in online profiles enough to invite complete strangers into their homes. AirBnB is proof. AirBnB is a service that allows people to post their homes and extra space as rental properties: AirBnB is a tipping point indication of the credibility of the social media as reputation [...]
AOL’s acquisition of the Huffington Post firmly entrenches AOL as a journalistic media endeavor eye-to-eye with Gannett, Murdoch and, gasp, the other newspapers. What is strikingly different about Huffington Post is that content is sourced from celebrities – politicians, actors, college professors, locals – and not from the ivory news desks that still embody the [...]
Can Quora go mainstream to the masses? Can Quora be used effectively as a local media resource and social network for communities that have local questions? The Problem with Local Topics Topics are the defining feature of Quora that allows users to filter their Q&A stream. To filter local Q&A, users will follow local geographical [...]
Following up on my previous post A New Local Business Model for Twitter, I extend the idea of Twitter potentially employing a new hashtag for geographies to other categories. To recap the geographical strategy: 1) Twitter first creates a series of geographical Twitter accounts with a new Twitter name coding system that uses, say *, [...]
Since Twitter is finding it difficult to create a bona fide business model based on its platform alone, they should look into developing broad new applications based on Twitter First, look at what Twitter does best: breaking news. The Twitter platform is natural for disseminating local news right down to the neighborhood level. Ev Williams [...]
Patrick Kitano is founding Principal of Brand into Media, a unique strategy group working with corporations and organizations to develop social and media-based strategies that engage hyperlocal communities.
I'm the author of Media Transparent, and contributor to Street Fight, Social Media Today, Daily Deal Media, The Customer Collective, and Quora.
I speak on the future of social commerce at conferences associated with social media, local advertising and real estate.
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