Yesterday, we issued an Executive Informational Overview® on Local Corporation (LOCM-NASDAQ), a provider of digital marketing products designed to connect local businesses with online and mobile consumers.
Local Corporation has expertise in helping small businesses develop and maintain a sophisticated online presence in order to be easily found by consumers, both on their own web properties and on major search engines. Its platform includes rich media ad creative, local business directory and product search technologies, mobile capabilities, search engine optimization (SEO), web hosting, social media services, daily deals, and a loyalty/rewards program, among other products and services.
The Online Advertising Market is Growing
Consumers are increasingly relying on the Internet and mobile devices to find products and services. Consequently, the use of traditional offline information for product searches, such as print Yellow Page listings and newspaper ads, is decreasing. As a result of this shift in consumer behavior, local businesses are gradually moving from traditional offline print marketing to online digital advertising, which essentially entails any form of advertising that appears on the Internet (e.g., search engine listings, banner ads, online classified advertising, or rich media ads that display video and interactive content). Consequently, the market for online advertising—Local Corporation’s target industry—is expanding and is likely to continue to do so for the coming years. In 2010, digital advertising was valued at approximately $20 billion, or 14.6% of the roughly $137.2 billion advertising industry in the U.S. According to BIA/Kelsey estimates, this market could expand to $38 billion, or 25.4% of the U.S. advertising industry, by 2015 (as illustrated in Figure 1).
Local Corporation's Expanding Online Local Media Business
Over the past five years, the firm has grown from a single website (www.local.com) to an online media business powering multiple proprietary websites (e.g., www.krillion.com and www.spreebird.com) and approximately 1,200 regional media sites. Local Corporation currently reaches an estimated one million consumers daily.
Local Corporation’s second quarter 2012 revenues were over $27 million, up 75% from the year-ago period. The Company achieved record traffic levels and strong monetization of that traffic—two key performance indicators for its business. Previously, from 2006 to 2010, Local Corporation achieved revenue growth of 492%, ranking the Company 191st on Deloitte & Touche LLP’s Technology Fast 500™ list and 12th on the Orange County Business Journal list of fastest-growing public companies.
For more information about Local Corporation and its product portfolio, download a copy of our 48-page Executive Informational Overview® on the Company, available here.