MerchantCircle
Encyclopedia
MerchantCircle is a Mountain View
, California
-based start-up
company which helps small businesses network with other local businesses and reach local customers through free marketing tools and social media features. Former CEO Ben T. Smith, IV co-founded the company in 2005. MerchantCircle was recognized as "Newcomer of the Year" by AlwaysOn Media in 2007, and was ranked as the fifth-largest local directory site and one of the top 160 sites in the U.S. by a Quantcast study in 2009. The MerchantCircle network signed on its one-millionth member merchant in early 2010, and expanded internationally to Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
MerchantCircle conducts a quarterly Merchant Confidence Index survey, the findings of which have been cited in The Financial Times, Forbes
, The New York Times
and USA Today
, among others.
On May 26, 2011, Reply! Inc. announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MerchantCircle for $60 million in cash and stock. The transaction was completed in Q3 2011. Reply! founder and CEO, Payam Zamani, is the CEO of the combined companies, called Reply! Inc. .
, Square 1 Bank, and all three previous investors. Ron Conway
was also an early investor.
In 2010, MerchantCircle acquired online meeting scheduler TimeBridge to enable merchants and consumers to schedule appointments and calls online. That same year, the company also took over management of RSS feed company Bloglines, through which it plans to deliver local and industry-specific targeted content to member merchants and local deals and information to Bloglines account holders.
, Citysearch
and Yelp, with community-oriented social media sites like Facebook
and Myspace
. The company claims it has pre-populated its local business directory with 20 million business listings including details such as address, phone number and a map – this is not an uncommon practice amongst online directory sites. Businesses have the ability to upload pictures, write blogs, create coupons and send online newsletters through the network. Consumers can leave reviews on business listing pages and business owners can respond.
Business owners can also pay for search engine advertisements through MerchantCircle.
In June 2009, MerchantCircle launched a consumer social network to mirror its business social network. Consumers would be able to follow coupons and deals in real time from their chosen local merchants and connect via the network to other consumers. All consumer reviews are saved on a consumer profile. Business owners would also be able to directly communicate with those that connect with them. MerchantCircle calls the feature "Neighbors".
site.
In May 2010, MerchantCircle settled a lawsuit with the Santa Clara County District Attourney's office, agreeing to pay $900,000 but without admitting wrongdoing. MerchantCircle was accused of making automated telemarketing phone calls without a live person on their end. Telemarketers are required in California to have an actual person on the phone to allow recipients to opt-out.
Mountain View, California
-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
-based start-up
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
company which helps small businesses network with other local businesses and reach local customers through free marketing tools and social media features. Former CEO Ben T. Smith, IV co-founded the company in 2005. MerchantCircle was recognized as "Newcomer of the Year" by AlwaysOn Media in 2007, and was ranked as the fifth-largest local directory site and one of the top 160 sites in the U.S. by a Quantcast study in 2009. The MerchantCircle network signed on its one-millionth member merchant in early 2010, and expanded internationally to Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
MerchantCircle conducts a quarterly Merchant Confidence Index survey, the findings of which have been cited in The Financial Times, Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, among others.
On May 26, 2011, Reply! Inc. announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MerchantCircle for $60 million in cash and stock. The transaction was completed in Q3 2011. Reply! founder and CEO, Payam Zamani, is the CEO of the combined companies, called Reply! Inc. .
History
MerchantCircle was founded in 2005, and officially launched in June 2006. It was named "Newcomer of the Year" by AlwaysOn Media in 2007. MerchantCircle received just over $4 million in early stage funding from venture capital firms Rustic Canyon Partners, Scale Venture Partners, and Steamboat Ventures. In November 2007, the company received an additional investment of $10 million from IACIAC/InterActiveCorp
InterActiveCorp is an American internet company with over 50 brands across 40 countries headquartered in New York City...
, Square 1 Bank, and all three previous investors. Ron Conway
Ron Conway
Ron Conway is an American angel investor, often described as one of the "super angels". Conway is recognized as a strong networker and is based in Silicon Valley.-Early career:...
was also an early investor.
In 2010, MerchantCircle acquired online meeting scheduler TimeBridge to enable merchants and consumers to schedule appointments and calls online. That same year, the company also took over management of RSS feed company Bloglines, through which it plans to deliver local and industry-specific targeted content to member merchants and local deals and information to Bloglines account holders.
Product Description
MerchantCircle is an online business directory, social business network and marketing platform. It combines features from traditional Internet yellow pages sites such as Yellowpages.comYELLOWPAGES.COM
YELLOWPAGES.com is an Internet web site operated by YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T..-History:Both sites' operations were merged into Yellowpages.com in 2005. As a result of SBC Communications' merger with AT&T, the post merger AT&T wholly owned an additional...
, Citysearch
Citysearch
Citysearch is an online city guide that provides information about businesses in the categories of dining, entertainment, retail, travel, and professional services in cities throughout the United States. Visitors to each of Citysearch's local city guides will find contact information, maps, driving...
and Yelp, with community-oriented social media sites like Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and Myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
. The company claims it has pre-populated its local business directory with 20 million business listings including details such as address, phone number and a map – this is not an uncommon practice amongst online directory sites. Businesses have the ability to upload pictures, write blogs, create coupons and send online newsletters through the network. Consumers can leave reviews on business listing pages and business owners can respond.
Business owners can also pay for search engine advertisements through MerchantCircle.
In June 2009, MerchantCircle launched a consumer social network to mirror its business social network. Consumers would be able to follow coupons and deals in real time from their chosen local merchants and connect via the network to other consumers. All consumer reviews are saved on a consumer profile. Business owners would also be able to directly communicate with those that connect with them. MerchantCircle calls the feature "Neighbors".
Criticism
The company has an "A+" rating, recently upgraded from C+ from the Silicon Valley Better Business Bureau. The agency had compiled some complaints from small businesses, mainly stemming from inaccurate listing information and several hundred from automated phone messages that falsely stated that the small businesses had received bad reviews. All of these complaints are shown as having been addressed on the BBBBetter Business Bureau
The Better Business Bureau , founded in 1912, is a corporation consisting of several private business franchises of local BBB organizations based in the United States and Canada, which work through their parent corporation, the Council of Better Business Bureaus .The Better Business Bureau, through...
site.
In May 2010, MerchantCircle settled a lawsuit with the Santa Clara County District Attourney's office, agreeing to pay $900,000 but without admitting wrongdoing. MerchantCircle was accused of making automated telemarketing phone calls without a live person on their end. Telemarketers are required in California to have an actual person on the phone to allow recipients to opt-out.
Recent news
- On May 4, 2011, MerchantCircle launched the first mobile app designed for small businesses to manage marketing.
- On November 4, 2010, MerchantCircle announced it would acquire BloglinesBloglinesBloglines is a web-based news aggregator for reading syndicated feeds using the RSS and Atom formats. Mark Fletcher, former CEO of ONElist, founded the site in June 2003 and sold it in February 2005 to Ask.com/InterActiveCorp. In 2005, it hosted more than 200 million searchable blog articles. On...
from Ask.comAsk.comAsk is a Q&A focused search engine founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California. The original software was implemented by Gary Chevsky from his own design. Warthen, Chevsky, Justin Grant, and others built the early AskJeeves.com website around that core engine...
. Ask had earlier announced it would shutter the service.
- On September 22, 2010, MerchantCircle announced the acquisition of TimeBridgeTimeBridgeTimeBridge is a Web-based software application for coordinating and running meetings and collaborating online. TimeBridge's meeting management service works with large groups or one-on-one meetings across time zones and companies and integrates directly with Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar and...
, a popular online scheduling platform company. This was the company's first acquisition and was reported as a move to enhance the communications between consumers and business owners with appointment setting. TimeBridge CEO Yori Nelken also joins MerchantCircle as CTO as a result of the merger.
- On May 24, 2010, MerchantCircle entered into an agreement with VeriSignVeriSignVerisign, Inc. is an American company based in Dulles, Virginia that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc and .tv country-code...
. As part of the deal, MerchantCircle businesses will be able to display the "VeriSign Trust Seal" in their member profile on the MerchantCircle web site.
- On May 12, 2010, MerchantCircle expanded internationally, releasing beta versions of its social networking and marketing platform to Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
- On January 18, 2010, MerchantCircle announced the signing of the network's one-millionth member.