web 2.0 the local you know, the local you don’t rich skrenta ceo & co-founder...
TRANSCRIPT
Kicking and Screaming
51% of traffic, 10% of channels in 2004
We didn’t set out to do “Local”
Boring
Hard to monetize
Nobody else had it
We Built an Aggregated News Site
Getting our Feet Wet in Local
The Good NewsGeo-localizing can target the advertising as well
Local content $6.00
Local real estate $30.00
Bay Area real estate $60.00
Heck…
And it should just keep growing
Google has 500k advertisers 6M local businesses in the US
Uh Oh
The Bad News Not enough local content
1,440 Local daily papers
2,303 News radio stations
1,686 Television stations
X 6
3
4
X
X
8,640
6,909
6,744
22,293
Number of populated ZIP codes in US
Total number of local stories per day
32,500
Original Local Stories
Blogosphere ?
Blogs Breakdown
Business 16%
Cars 0%
Entertainment 14%
Health 3%
Life 12%Local 12%
News 5%
Others 2%
Politics 1%
Religion 1%
Science 2%
Sports 8%
Tech 13%
US 3%World 8%
Mainstream Media Breakdown
Business 10%
Cars 0%
Entertainment 8%
Health 3%
Life 5%
Local 23%
News 8%
Other 4%
Politics 1%
Religion 0%
Science 1%
Sports 23%
Tech 2%
US 3%
World 9%
We thought the blogosphere might fix this
Sigh.
Negative Sum Game
Local information monopoly doesn’t translate online
Internet kills revenue for other media
But doesn’t replace it
Media Revenues (in millions)*Offline Online Online percentage
Newspapers $40,400 $2,000 4.72%Radio Stations $15,203 $60 0.39%TV Stations $4,973 $283 5.38%
* Borrell Associates
Monopoly profits simply disappear
Craigslist costs the Bay Area's traditional newspapers $50-$65 million annually
It’s Getting Worse
If You Want Something Done…
Could we create it ourselves?
Topix 2006
5 Million Unique Visitors
2.3 pageviews per visitor
We added the ability to comment on stories
10 Million Unique Visitors
20 pageviews per commenter
Most active areas in small communities
Topix 2007
Local Citizen Journalism
What Worked?
Tornadoes Strike Caruthersville, MO
200 posts
pop. 6,636
Caruthersville Forum Post Volume
Tornadoes Hit
Teachers Sex Scandal
Police Chief Discussion
Web 2.0, America. America, Web 2.0
Local issues drive local traffic
Web 2.0 in Anytown USA
Comments in 19,868 towns
Daily activity in over 1,000 cities
This stuff works!
40k posts per day As many posts as local articles in system
The Conversation is Local