(http://techloy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/infomob-logo.png) (http://techloy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/infomob-logo.png)
There are indications that InfoMob (http://techloy.com/company/infomob/), one of the local business search engines in Nigeria could bite the dust due to challenges in the business listing space, a reliable source has revealed to TechLoy.
The highly competitive industry currently being dominated by VConnect at the moment with impending threat from Mocality, hasn't been a fun ride for the startup which launched back in 2010.
InfoMob is a hyper-local business information and reviews service, just like Yelp which looked very promising when it launched, but seemed to have faced several challenges on the way.
One of such challenges is determining the most effective and cost-effective way of gathering and processing business-related data. Trust me, I've been in a similar situation before while planning the right strategy for developing such content for a local information search portal.
We've learned that Infomob armed a team of about 40 people with GPS-enabled smartphones to go door-to-door and capture data and information about local businesses including business name, business address, phone number, GPS location, store front and office photos, products, opening times/days etc.
While VConnect (http://techloy.com/company/vconnect) and Mocality (http://techloy.com/company/mocality) may have a staff team responsible for gathering such data and information or perhaps pay agents a small fee to get such business data across Nigeria, one wonders if this would eventually make such services financially viable on the long run (http://techloy.com/2012/03/10/vconnect-vs-mocality/) considering the operation and marketing costs.
As a startup, InfoMob first launched in Lagos with the goal of expanding to other cities in Nigeria in the future. But it seemed that the operation costs and logistics involved in running the service within Lagos alone became a nightmare.
Besides, the parent company of the service, E-motion Advertising made a foray into the daily deals space, launching its service called DealDey (http://techloy.com/company/dealdey) in March 2011, which has grown to become the largest daily deals service in Nigeria with deals and offices in Lagos and Abuja.
This may have caused a shift in focus over the past year as recent investments into the parent company brought in a cash injection of $1 million into the daily deals service, while InfoMob was ignored.
My guess is that the owners and investors had already pulled the plug on InfoMob since there was no allocation to the floundering business listing service.
With its growing operation and marketing costs without any sign of revenues in the past two years coupled with the threat of VConnect, Mocality and perhaps Google's GNBO, InfoMob seems likely to bite the dust in the next few months.
TechLoy