An ingenious trend to complement the explosion of the data and the worldwide web, the hyperlocal phenomenon is arousing the interest of retailers and buyers alike. It brings a kind of convenience like no other, dramatically reducing time, space and effort that might be well utilized for something else. However, like any other trend, hyperlocal is becoming a familiar occurrence, having a lot of competition in the industry and thus, players need to constantly upgrade in order to cope up with shifting consumer demands, as well as to keep consumers interested. Just a few moments back, I found two amazing location-based players that are doing something new on the hyperlocal sphere: Deals Go Round and Situationist.

Deals Go Round is an online outlet for reselling secondhand Groupon coupons. It doesn’t sound generally helpful, but if you’re one of the few not-so-lucky coupon buyers who just blew off a couple of hundred bucks on a bad deal, then you’re currently looking at a possible solution to your seemingly insolvable problem. However, there’s a downside to this website. It rips off 10 percent of the resell price as finder’s fee –which is really high. But if you’re racing with an expiration date or is mega desperate in getting your money back, everything just sounds like a good idea. Better lose 10% of the amount than lose all the money for good. They also released a mobile app form not too long ago.

The Situationist app, on the other hand, is an application for locating users in a particular area and assigning them random challenges, such as giving someone a hug (which is awesome and creepy, considering the challenger is initially a stranger to you). It also allows users to upload their photos on the area where the challenge will be held (or “situation” as coined by the application). However, photos are censored, and anything containing explicit content is moderated. There’s no reward for completing a challenge (what?) but the fun and possibly, gaining new friends, is just priceless. This is a good application for those who love challenges, and meeting random people. It is an application developed for iPhone.

Of course, the biggest online daily deal site and one of the leaders in hyperlocal trend, Groupon, made some interesting announcements recently. The website intends to go on an IPO and valued the company $25 billion, which has raised the brows of critics and cynics. It just doesn’t sound very believable to some, considering that the amount declared is higher than that of search giant Google, which is only $24.5 billion. It is also the first group-buying website to promote a Hollywood movie by vending tickets, inking an agreement with Lionsgate to promote the Lincoln Lawyer, starring Mattew McConaughey. It was also reported to launch a new real-time application called Groupon Now. You’ll never run out of Groupon deals to choose from.

This is only the beginning. Hyperlocal marketing is a new arena and we can expect a lot of exploration around it.