As many startups are looking frantically what the best business model could be for a prosperous future, recent figures show that going local may be the best way if one wants to attract advertisers to its business. Even though the figures are US based, one may assume that other markets will show a similar projection.

BIA/Kelsey released their forecast for US Local advertising revenues for the 2009-2014 period.

The highlights are as follows:

• U.S. local advertising market will grow to $144.9 billion in 2014
• Spending on traditional media will decline from $115 billion in 2009 to $108.2 billion in 2014
• Spending on online/interactive media is projected to grow from $15.2 billion to $36.7 billion (CAGR: +19.3%)
• Meaningful recovery beginning in 2012
• 55 percent of all ad spending is with local media

Giants like Google, Facebook, Yelp are all looking to capture the local ad-market, however a whole bunch of startups are doing the same, with examples as Foursquare and Bview. Here is a video of a local search with augmented reality features.