Local markets have been tough for high-tech companies. If you talk to investors or entrepreneurs, you typically hear a sad story of distribution issues, technology issues, costs etc. What you rarely hear are issues related to value proposition to local businesses. You don’t hear of whether a local business found a service indispensable or even valuable as if  a local businesses should be happy to provided any service at all.

These companies (e.g directory listing, web sie creation, coupon listing,  self-service location-based companies etc.) have mostly focused on targeting larger number of customers and getting a good conversion factor instead of the customer value proposition.

With the advent of social media these businesses are going to have a tough time staying relevant. Businesses will demand more and more measurable ROI. With location-based and mobile computing there are going to be more and more ways to deliver these services in a cost-effective ways.

This of course is great news for local business owners who will get a pick of services that deliver real ROI to them and finally we will new billion dollar companies developing by focussing on adding value to customers.