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The following is a guest post by Mobile Guru
A report today from BIA/Kelsey said that it expects U.S. mobile local advertising revenues to grow from $213 million in 2009 to $2.03 billion in 2014, at a 57 percent compound annual growth rate. This represents 44 percent of total U.S. mobile ad revenues in 2009, growing to 69 percent in 2014. Companies such as Groupon and LivingSocial both capitalize on local advertising by having deals of the day that offer discounts to people who opt in to certain deals.
Recent rumors have surfaced that indicate that Google (GOOG) will soon be purchasing Groupon for up to $6 billion. Today Amazon (AMZN) invested $175M in LivingSocial. Two large companies with two unique approaches to investing in this high growth area. On one hand, Google wants to own Groupon and will offer some large benefits that will help them grow. Amazon, by becoming an investor in the company, will actually cash out if LivingSocial gets bought out or does an IPO, which has been rumored.
Here are some interesting statistics for Groupon and LivingSocial. Both companies are said to be looking at roughly $500M in revenues for this year. Both have over 10 million users with Groupon having 12 million and LivingSocial 10 million. Both companies have only been around for the last several years. Neither company owns a barrier to entry which means with the right backing almost anyone can get into this business and probably will. … [visit site to read more]
