31-08-2017, 09:55 AM
Citysearch is an online city guide that provides business information in the categories of restaurants, entertainment, retail, travel and professional services in cities across the United States. Visitors to each of Citysearch's local city guides will find contact information, maps, driving directions, editorial and comments from users of listed companies. Citysearch is headquartered in West Hollywood, California and is a Web site owned and operated by CityGrid Media, which is an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI). The original office was in Pasadena, California.
Citysearch was founded in September 1995 by Jeffrey Brewer, Dickson Caskey, Brad Haaugard, Taylor Wescoatt and Tamar Halpern. Charles Conn was recruited to lead the new company. The idea, initiative and seed capital came initially from Bill Gross.
In August 1998, Citysearch merged with Ticketmaster Online. In July 1999, Citysearch acquired Microsoft's Sidewalk.com website and merged the two sites together. In December 1999, Ticketmaster-CitySearch received a US $ 40 million investment from USA Networks, Inc., then controlled by Barry Diller. In 2007, another competitor, Insider Pages, was acquired.
In June 2010, Citysearch LLC renamed CityGrid Media. The flagship product of CityGrid Media is CityGrid, a content network and site ads. CityGrid Media also owns and operates the main local consumer properties, which include Citysearch, Insider Pages and Urbanspoon.
While many local search sites emerged in the 21st century, Citysearch's biggest competition comes from the rapid growth of Yelp, Inc. By the late 2000's, Yelp grew to 80% while Citysearch's growth remained flat. Local Bing, Google and Yahoo search engines are also widely used alternatives to finding local businesses on the internet.
Citysearch was founded in September 1995 by Jeffrey Brewer, Dickson Caskey, Brad Haaugard, Taylor Wescoatt and Tamar Halpern. Charles Conn was recruited to lead the new company. The idea, initiative and seed capital came initially from Bill Gross.
In August 1998, Citysearch merged with Ticketmaster Online. In July 1999, Citysearch acquired Microsoft's Sidewalk.com website and merged the two sites together. In December 1999, Ticketmaster-CitySearch received a US $ 40 million investment from USA Networks, Inc., then controlled by Barry Diller. In 2007, another competitor, Insider Pages, was acquired.
In June 2010, Citysearch LLC renamed CityGrid Media. The flagship product of CityGrid Media is CityGrid, a content network and site ads. CityGrid Media also owns and operates the main local consumer properties, which include Citysearch, Insider Pages and Urbanspoon.
While many local search sites emerged in the 21st century, Citysearch's biggest competition comes from the rapid growth of Yelp, Inc. By the late 2000's, Yelp grew to 80% while Citysearch's growth remained flat. Local Bing, Google and Yahoo search engines are also widely used alternatives to finding local businesses on the internet.