Search Results for: mobile commerce

Location-based marketing heats up with brewing rivalry

| December 30, 2012

land-based marketing social medial rivalryLocation-based marketing gains steam in social networking

Location-based marketing is heating up and social networking sites are leading the charge. Foursquare is one of the first social networking sites to offer “check-in” services, which allow users to inform their friends of the locations they visit throughout the day. Facebook recently adopted a similar service and both networking sites have found a significant amount of success with these services in the advertising space. This success has garnered the attention of Rich Gorman, an online marketing specialist and veritable celebrity in the advertising industry.

Facebook and Foursquare rivalry could be good for location-based marketing

Gorman notes that Foursquare has made significant advancements to its check-in service that offers users with local search options. This assists in discovering locations that would have otherwise gone unnoticed by consumers, thus directing business to small stores that typically see little traffic. Facebook itself has been working to expand its services in order to compete with Foursquare, hoping to make an impact in  the location-based marketing space.

Mobile technology provides advertisers with direct line to consumers

Location-based marketing is becoming exceedingly important as consumers become more mobile. The advent of mobile devices has taken consumers away from stationary computing and out into the world, presenting a promising opportunity for marketers to engage consumers in a more dynamic way. Mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets, allow marketers to be in constant contact with consumers and location-based services are providing marketers with valuable geographic information that could be used to target very specific demographics.

Mobile marketing expected to heat up in 2013

Gorman notes that there seems to be a growing rivalry between Facebook and Foursquare. Gorman suggests that Foursquare has a significant head start over its potential competitor, but Facebook has a great deal of clout that will enable it to match the capabilities of Foursquare. Location-based marketing may gain more momentum in 2013, especially as the rivalry between Foursquare and Facebook takes off.

Zynga confronts crisis with major overhaul

| December 29, 2012

zyngaZynga aims to recover from trouble through re-structuring

Once mammoth mobile and web game developer Zynga has hit a very rough patch recently. The company, which is behind some of the most popular online games in the world, such as Farmville, saw its stocks crash in recent months, falling 85% from its all-time high. Zynga has been a formidable name in the mobile gaming space for years, but has been confronted with problems that may be forcing the company to re-structure and re-consider its focus on social gaming.

Developer cuts 150 jobs as part of overhaul

Over the past several months, Zynga has seen lackluster performance with many of its games. This month, the company cut 150 jobs in an effort to save itself from financial ruin and to prepare itself for a major overhaul. The overhaul is being loosely dubbed as Zynga 2.0, but it is unlikely that the game development company will stray far from its mobile gaming roots or risk breaking new ground by developing games that may not find success. Ironically, this is part of the problem that lead Zynga to its current crisis.

Developer targeted by EA in copyright lawsuit

Zynga has long been criticized in the game industry, as well as others, for its focus on quick-to-market mobile and social games that are almost identical to well-established, successful games that come from major developers like Electronic Arts. The similarities between these games are so striking that Zynga has found itself in the midst of a copyright lawsuit from Electronic Arts, which claims that the company blatantly stole and used concepts from one of its popular games. While Zynga may have etched out some early success with its approach to gaming, this success garnered the company with a great deal of attention that it may have wanted to avoid.

Overhaul may bring Zynga back to the top

Despite the myriad problems that Zynga is facing, the company’s popular games still boast of a massive following. Farmville 2, for instance, claims some 45 million monthly active unique users. Zynga has seen less success in its mobile gaming ventures and the launch of other titles, but the company may be able to pull itself back from serious crisis if it can adopt a more quality-centric development formula.