Ateneo schoolmates Bernice Arcenas, Jet Lacson, Aye Navarro and Chuck Syjuco established an online city guide and magazine in January of 1999. Their online business model was bent towards happenings and events in Metro Manila, and named it Localvibe.com. Localvibe.com provides extensive information on the best Metro Manila has to offer in bars, restaurants, and gimmick places — sort of an online guide for active urban lifestyle.
They then introduced LocalVibe Wireless on February the following year, one of the first local sites to be available over WAP. WAP was still starting to get attention that time and since it was still free (for Smart and Globe), it added value to their service.
Two years after it launched, Singapore-based GetAsia bought into LocalVibe.com and rival site LegManila.com to form GetAsia.com.ph (PR3) and become a regional player.
A year later, they closed down though the site was still up for quite some time. I remember using the site to get the delivery number of Adobo Republic in Ortigas.
Now, the domains are sitting idly, at least for getasia.com.ph.
Clickthecity (CTC) and LegManila were owned by the Reguyals, who then merged with Localvibe.com. LegManila was kept as a separate site but was shut down early on, while GetAsia integrated Clickthecity’s directory services into its cityguide lifestyle section while Clickthecity maintained its own SMS brand and internet presence.
When GetAsia was also shut down, CTC went partly back to Surfshop, where the Reguyals used to have business interest. I am still a loyal user of their movie and tv sms service, though I’m sure sureseats and the new SMS service from ABS-CBN is sure to give them a run for their money.
ClickTheCity’s still with SurfShop.
http://www.clickthecity.com/info/contact.asp
I think ClickTheCity was bought by another local company then (SurfShop ata, something) then it went independent again.
Ohh, this one’s interesting. Wasn’t ClickTheCity another competitor of LocalVibe back then? If they are already closed, maybe they could resell their content?
Oh, and I found an interview in ClickTheCity:
http://www.clickthecity.com/info/press4.asp
“At a time when too many Internet ideas go straight from startup to belly-up, the LegManila-Localvibe union is an apparent vindication… Sometimes, you can make your Internet dreams come true.”