When MySpace announced a new rating service for small businesses, it was good news for CitySearch.
The service is a partnership between MySpace and West Hollywood-based CitySearch, an online guide that offers information on local businesses. It’s called MySpace Local and it was unveiled March 31. The service allows MySpace users to rate restaurants, bars, clubs and other businesses and recommend them to their friends. It also lets businesses use the social networking Web site to reach potential customers with advertisements and online coupons.
MySpace, which is owned by News Corp., uses CitySearch’s database of businesses in major U.S. cities as the foundation for MySpace Local. Every time a MySpace user clicks on a map in MySpace Local or on a business feature like a menu, the business pays MySpace a small sum, which it splits with CitySearch.
That new revenue stream, combined with other benefits CitySearch stands to reap from its MySpace partnership, should give the company a shot in the arm. In recent months, CitySearch has been losing ground to competitors such as Yelp.com, which also offers user reviews of local businesses.
CitySearch saw a 20 percent decrease in traffic over the past year while Yelp saw traffic jump 116 percent, according to online analytics site Compete.com. MySpace Local could help CitySearch make a comeback, said Hadley Reynolds, director of search and marketplace technologies for IDC Inc., a Framingham, Mass., firm that tracks information tech companies and markets.
“By inking these deals, CitySearch is going to get a whole new set of eyeballs for their local advertisers and potentially could build a lot more traffic than they’ve been able to build for themselves,” Reynolds said. “And I think that’s very smart on CitySearch’s part.”
But if MySpace Local is a success, wouldn’t that take users away from CitySearch as they migrate to MySpace’s platform?
Jay Herratti, chief executive of CitySearch, said he wasn’t concerned about that, saying the partnership would be good for his site regardless.
“We think this partnership is an incredible opportunity to get much larger traffic and a new audience,” Herratti said.
Explosive Collaboration
Mix 10 venture capitalists, 10 experienced entrepreneurs and 10 startup chief executives, and what do you get? Nitro.
That’s the name of a new mentoring group aimed at the L.A.-area tech community. Its goal: help guide a select group of chief executives at promising startups, then turn those CEOs into mentors for the next generation of startups.
At Nitro’s first meeting two weeks ago, each of the startup executives presented his or her company to the venture capitalists and experienced entrepreneurs. They were then matched with two mentors, a venture capitalist and an experienced entrepreneur. The groups will meet about every two months to talk about issues facing the startup.
Nitro will also organize workshops for the startup executives to teach them about timely topics such as mergers and acquisitions, recruiting, fundraising and business development. The program lasts six months, when Nitro plans to select a new group of 10 chief executives from L.A.-area startups.
Meanwhile, any startup executive who graduates from Nitro has to agree to take the phone calls of any member from future Nitro classes looking for advice.
Mark Suster, a partner at venture capital firm GRP Partners in Century City and a Nitro participant, said the idea for the group sprang from a noticeable void here in Los Angeles.
“The local tech community’s done a good job of running cocktail parties,” said Suster, who co-founded Nitro with John Morris of GKM Ventures in West Los Angeles. “But we need a community that helps each other, and helps create and foster startups.”
Ryan Born, chief executive of AudioMicro Inc., a Sherman Oaks-based startup that sells film sound effects and musical cues, and who is part of Nitro’s inaugural class, said his mentors have already put him in touch with industry players, including an executive at a top four record label.
“I have a big meeting tomorrow, a big one,” Born said. “And it’s all from this.”
Other members of the current Nitro class include ElephantDrive Inc., a Westwood Village-based cloud computing company, and Sometrics Inc., a downtown L.A. company that measures Web traffic on social networking sites.
Zag Bags AAA
Zag.com, a Santa Monica-based startup that helps customers research and purchase automobiles, signed a deal with AAA last week that will put Zag’s technology into a new AAA service.
The service, called AAA Automaker, helps people find and purchase vehicles. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
This is another significant deal for Zag, which was started in 2005 by former CarsDirect executive Scott Painter. Zag already has deals with United Services Automobile Association and the National Rifle Association to help their members find and buy vehicles.
Staff reporter Charles Proctor can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 230 or [email protected].
