IAC Launches Ask City

Want local business information, events, maps and movies? IAC wants to provide it through the launch of a new property: Ask City. The new Ask City will draw heavily from other IAC properties like Ticketmaster and CitySearch.

by Kristina Knight

For the launch period, Ask City will not display any ads, but that could change in the future.

At Ask City, users may search for specific types of restaurants, concerts or other events, and can make reservations or purchase tickets through a provided link. The site will also draw movie reviews from the Chicago Tribune.

IAC hopes the new service will help them gain ground on search and city guide providers Google and Yahoo, which draw the majority of Internet users each month, according to ComScore. The Ask network currently ranks fourth behind Google, Yahoo and the Microsoft Network with roughly 5.8% of searches.

Greg Sterling, principal of Sterling Marketing Intelligence said (via MediaPost), "It’s a top tier product now--in contrast to their old local product, which was basically just repackaging the Citysearch listings with a map."

The drawback for IAC is that Ask City will compete directly with CitySearch, IAC’s current city guide and a well-known platform with users. If Ask City does take off, CitySearch is likely to lose users – and revenue.