Tag: Deals

PriceGrabber Gets Into Local Deals

Yet another player has entered into the daily deals space. This time it’s PriceGrabber, which has just announced the launch of a new local deals category. PriceGrabber’s angle is actually to let consumers search through thousands of daily deals from over 20 other group buying sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, etc. I’d imagine this will expand along with the space itself.

Aggregation is going to become more important in this space as so many players enter the game, and so many deals come out on a daily basis. A representative for PriceGrabber tells WebProNews, “PriceGrabber survey data shows 44% of online consumers search daily deal websites but 52% of shoppers feel overwhelmed by the number of emails they receive from group buying sites.”

“Eighty-six percent of respondents indicated that when they find a great deal, they share the information with friends and family,” she adds.

Experian-owned PriceGrabber, which is currently seeing over 3 million unique monthly visitors , and had over 6 million around the holidays (Compete), covers over 160 metropolitan areas, which are updated several times throughout the day.

“With the explosive growth in the local deals category, PriceGrabber saw the opportunity to save consumers money and time and present local deals all in one place,” said Graham Jones, general manager of PriceGrabber.com. “For the past 10 years, PriceGrabber has been perfecting the process of aggregating the best prices on millions of products from thousands of merchants. So getting into the daily deal space was a natural progression for us. We are simplifying the local deals industry so shoppers can find the most relevant offers to fit their interests and needs in their local market.”

The service lets customers select their areas of interest and get one daily or weekly email covering all of the deals services. On the site at deals.pricegrabber.com, you can filter the deals not only by location, but buy category, such as: active life and fitness, beauty and spas, education, family and kids, food and dining, home and personal services, and shopping.

You can also filter by price and by group buying site.

According to PriceGrabber, 23 million American bought daily deals last year.

June 1, 2011
Google Offers: First Deal Launches in Portland

Google officially launched Google Offers, the company’s new Groupon competitor, in Portland Oregon today.

Google Offers was announced in February, and the beta first went live in April. Today, consumers in Portland can get a deal, or…an offer.

The first offer comes from Portland coffee shop Floyd’s Coffee. “Husband-and-wife team Jack Inglis and Cris Chapman opened Floyd’s seven years ago, offering up espresso, coffee, breakfast burritos and more,” says Google Offers Product Manager Kyle Harrison. “They now have two convenient locations—one cozy, brick-lined shop in Old Town and another Stumptown watering-hole in Buckman.”

Google says it’s working with other local Portland businesses Le Bistro Montage, Powell’s Books, and Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade on other offers.

Google Offers will launch in New York City and San Francisco next, and the company says it hopes to launch in other cities soon.

It sure is getting off to a slow start. It feels like this is the third time they’ve launched the product, and it’s only just launched its first offer for the city of Portland. Groupon and LivingSocial are gaining ground in this space all over the place, and Facebook has entered the fray as well, not to mention plenty of smaller, niche players. Even Glenn Beck has entered on the game.

Groupon is going so far as to make deals with location-based services like Loopt and Foursquare to spread its deals (not to mention having bought such a service of its own). Google has plenty of advantages (search, Place Pages, and Android to name a few) that will come into play for Google Offers, but it’s going to have to expand quickly to cover a lot more ground to give Groupon a run for its money.

June 1, 2011
LivingSocial? Groupon? Glenn Beck Launches MarkDown

Glenn Beck, of Fox News fame, made an interesting and unexpected annoucnement today – the launch of a new deals service that would rival companies like Groupon, LivingSocial, and the like. It’s official. Everyone really is getting into this game – from AT&T to Facebook, Google, and now Glenn Beck.

Beck announced the launch today via Twitter and other channels.

@glennbeck
Glenn BeckProud to announce the launch of Markdown.com. Valuable deals with partners who have values. Today: CHOCOLATE! http://bit.ly/lUReYn 1 hour ago via web · powered by @socialditto

The launch actually stems from Beck’s production company Mercury Radio Arts, according to the Wall Street Journal, but make no mistake, this is very Glenn Beck-oriented. Beck even has “a special announcement from Glenn” popping up at GlennBeck.com:

MarkDown’s about page says:

Markdown.com is a different kind of e-commerce site. Sure, we care about revenue and profit, but we care about honesty and integrity just as much. We believe in value, but we also believe in values—the idea that we should be guided by a set of principles that transcends money.

To put it simply, we believe that we can only be a great company if we are a good one. That means being good to our employees, our partners and our customers. It means making the right decisions, not just the easy or profitable ones. But, most of all, it means being the kind of place that we’re proud to say we work at; the kind of business that we’d want to do business with ourselves; and the kind of company that we’d be excited to send our own family and friends to.

We’re happy that you’ve found us and we hope to earn your trust by proving how much we value your time and your money. We work hard every day to find and negotiate exclusive deals that we think are worthy of bringing to your attention. You won’t hear from us unless we succeed. That means no “daily” emails to announce marginal deals—when we announce a Markdown it’s for a very good reason.

That last bit is interesting – no daily emails. That certainly does set it apart from Groupon in another respect. So far, email has been an integral tool in getting customers to notice these deals (though Facebook’s News Feed approach may prove quite effective). Even Google is going the email route with its Google Offers product.

The launch of MarkDown accentuates an important element of the deals space – the niche. While competition does continue to get more fierce in the realm of general daily deals (while merging with location-based services), there appears to be plenty of room for niche, vertical players who can cater to specific audiences, whether that simply be a geographic location or groups of people with similar interests.

As more of these niche sercvice emerge, the need for compreshensive deal aggregation is going to become more key. Services that can deliver relevant and timely deals from numerous providers to consumers will be getting significant customer attention.

May 23, 2011
Foursquare and Groupon Expected to Partner on Location-Based Deals

It was only a matter of time. The check-in app and daily deals spaces continue to merge, and this time it looks like the poster children for both spaces are joining forces.

Foursquare and Groupon are partnering, according to a report from All Things D’s Liz Gannes, who cites “multiple sources familiar with the matter”. She also shared the following statement from a Groupon spokeswoman:

“We see a lot of potential for Groupon Now! to be showcased via services like Loopt. No bigger picture to announce yet, but stay tuned for additional collaborations.”

So we don’t know exactly when we will see a product come of this, but it will most likely be pretty soon. A few days ago, location-based service Loopt announced a partnership with Groupon , which will see the new Groupon Now service being used by Loopt customers (in Chicago for now, but expanding in the near term) to get alerts on deals based on their location.

It seems highly likely that we’ll continue to see more and more of this kind of partnership. Expect Groupon to get on as many location-based services/check-in apps as possible to expand to as many new customers as possible as the deals space gets more competitive. Location is an obvious indication of deal relevance. The company even acquired a location-based service company in Pelago (makers of Whrrl). Simply put, location makes Groupon more valuable to consumers. Expect Groupon’s competitors to employ a similar strategy.

At the same time, the location-based service companies like Foursquare will continue to look for ways to not only stand out from the crowd, but offer consumers real value beyond the novelty of the check-in game. Foursquare already has an edge up on its competitors in this department, as it has steadily been making itself more appealing by offering businesses new ways to entice consumers. Foursquare and others check-in service will also continue to find new partnerships (that includes with Groupon’s competitors). Google is even letting Google Places users import Foursquare data.

The ways in which the deals players are able to deliver relevant deals will be the the main factor that drives their success in the space, and that is prcisely why it is key for Groupon to get out there on as many platforms as possible, as it is facing some stiff up and coming competition from the likes of companies like Facebook and Google who have tremendous advantages in the delivery department. Facebook has the ever-popular News Feed, and Google has search (not to mention Place Pages, email, and a variety of other weapons at its disposal, depending on how its strategy for Google Offfers develops).

May 23, 2011
Loopt Gets Groupon Now Alerts

Groupon and Loopt have partnered to to give Loopt users access to alerts from Groupon’s recently launched Groupon Now service. “The big thing Loopt brings to this is location-specific alerts,” Loopt Corporate Communications Manager Sharon Howell tells WebProNews. “Loopt’s Reward Alerts feature integrates nicely with Groupon Now’s time-limited deals. With Loopt, Groupon fans can get the deals based on their current location (so as Groupon Now expands, you can get them when you travel to a different city, for instance).”

Groupon Now announced 9 days ago for Groupon’s hometown of Chicago (actually launched today), which is also where it is currently available for Loopt users. It provides realtime offers to users on their mobile devices based on their location. This ad from Groupon sums up what the service is all about:

Loopt, a location-based service aimed at “uncovering need-to-know info about your city” launched its Reward Alerts a couple months ago.

“We built Reward Alerts into Loopt so that people could opt in to extremely targeted, time-limited deals. Loopt is the only service that can notify you of these deals based on your current location without even opening the app,” says the company says in a blog post.

Users will get once-a-day location-based Groupon Now deal alerts. They’ll also be able to use Loopt’s existing features to spread the word, plan get-togethers around the deals, etc.

While it’s only available in Chicago for the time being, Loopt plans to offer the service nationwide. Of course Groupon doesn’t even offer it nationwide yet, so there’s no telling when that will be.

The service is available for iPhone and Android users.

It’s pretty clear that we’re going to continue to see the location-based service and offers spaces merge. There’s little doubt that we will see more and more partnerships of this type. Groupon even recently acquired Pelago, the makers of the check-in app, Whrrl. You can pretty much count on Groupon competitors like Facebook and Google getting their deals/offers products integrated across various check-in apps.

The winners in the check-in app space will be the companies that can provide the most value to consumers. The deal and aggregation of not only deals, but relevant deals is going to be key moving forward. That relevancy factor is going to give both Facebook and Google their respective edges, but in different ways. Google knows your search activity (among other things) and Facebook knows your friends and your interests. Combine these factors with location, and there are some pretty powerful opportunities for advertisers.

May 20, 2011
Netflix, Miramax Deal Brings Oscar Winners and Cult Classics to Customers

Netflix has announced a new multi-year deal with Miramax to bolster its ever-expanding catalog of available-for-streaming movie titles. That means users will get access to some classics from Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, among others.

Films include (but are not limited to) Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill volumes 1 and 2, Clerks, Chasing Amy, From Dusk Till Dawn, the Spy Kids movies, Good Will Hunting, Cold Mountain, and of course Reindeer Games.

Miramax says the movies included in the deal have a total of 284 Academy Award nominations among them (and 68 wins). Granted, I don’t believe Reindeer Games falls into that category, unfortunately.

“Netflix is thrilled to enter into this deal with the new team at Miramax,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. “Existing relationships with management and a shared affinity for these great films make this an important deal for both companies and for our members, who will enjoy instantly watching movies from one of the truly great film libraries for many years to come.”

“From day one, we’ve been very clear about the importance of digital and our desire to respond to the significant pent-up demand for our films — delivering to consumers whenever and wherever they want,” said Miramax CEO Mike Lang.

“This agreement is an important first step in our digital strategy,” he added. “Netflix has always been a trailblazer, with a tremendous track record of innovation and quality customer service. We’re thrilled to now be in business with them as we build and revitalize the proud Miramax brand.”

As competition mounts in the streaming movie space, Netflix seems to be making content deals faster than ever. That should not only help to keep existing customers from jumping ship, but also bring more on board. With studios putting movie rentals on Facebook and Google renting movies directly through the Android Market and through YouTube (just to name a couple of recent entrants to the race), things aren’t going to get easier for the company.

Meanwhile, Netflix also continues to expand upon the list of supported devices. Last week, they announced a new Android app for some devices, and said that they were developing for others.

Netflix is not available for Google’s other operating system (Chrome OS) yet, but the company says it is working with Google to have it available soon.

The Miramax deal will go into effect in June for Netflix subscribers in the U.S.

[Image: From Dusk Till Dawn]

May 16, 2011
Foursquare Check-in Nets Cheaper Gas at Murphy USA

As gas prices have continued to climb, topping $4 in many parts of the U.S., one fuel retailer is harnessing to power of social media to bring in customers.

Murphy USA, a gas station chain located adjacent to Walmarts and Sam’s Clubs, is offering a deal on gas if you check-in using Foursquare. In all of its 1,000+ locations, a check-in will save you $2 off a purchase of $20.

If there was any way to promote Foursquare check-ins right now, it would be with gas deals. Americans are losing their minds over the high prices at the pump.

@foursquare
foursquareCheck in for cheap(er) gas! RT @MurphyUSA Gas Prices are on the rise again; so are our sweet @foursquare Specials – $2 off $20 gas purchase! 2 hours ago via Twitter for Mac · powered by @socialditto

Murphy USAGas Prices are on the rise again, but so are our sweet @Foursquare Specials – $2 off your $20 gas purchase when you check-in! 4 hours ago · 214 likes · 69 comments

What seems like a pretty cut and dry fun little deal is receiving some interesting feedback on Facebook. The above post has already received a bunch of comments and the vast majority aren’t positive. Many comments ask “What is Foursquare” while one asks “How do I check in LOL?” Many state that they feel left out of the deal because they don’t have a smartphone, and ask if they can still get $2 off. Well, if that worked then Murphy would have just lowered the price of gas for everyone, wouldn’t they?

It seems as though people have a disconnect between coupons and location based deals like this. Nobody would ask for the same deal an actual coupon holder received if they didn’t have the paper coupon themselves. Maybe they aren’t seeing the check-in as just that, a virtual paper coupon.

Last year, Internet Business Director for Murphy USA Casey Petersen spoke about check-in strategies for business. At that time, they were using Whrrl to “engage customers and build loyalty.”

Check-in deals are most likely only going to increase in frequency moving forward. Hopefully they can help people to find savings in everyday activities and allow businesses to better connect with their customer base.

May 11, 2011
Daily Deals Space Gets More Crowded as AT&T Enters the Ring

Add another provider to the growing list of daily deal options for customers and businesses. Believe it or not, this one comes from another established, well-known brand (actually two well-known brands).

A representative for AT&T tells WebProNews, “AT&T plans to focus on deals for real-life, every day needs including dining, personal care, home services, entertainment and travel.”

The service is attached to YellowPages.com, and pre-registration is now open.

“With AT&T’s existing reach in local search, the daily deals marketplace gives us an opportunity to expand our nearly $1B local advertising business and offer another way for merchants to connect with consumers,” the rep says. “Consumers in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Dallas/Fort Worth interested in receiving the deal of the day are encouraged to sign up now to receive $10 off their first purchased deal.”

“The initial 3 cities were chosen based on consumer and advertiser engagement opportunities and existing relationships, but we’re already working to deliver more deals to more cities,” she adds.

Most daily deals offerings include heavy use of email marketing – a strategy Groupon is well-known for, and Google is emulating with its Google Offers. Facebook has a slightly different approach, utilizing the news feed to get deals in front of customers. It will be interesting in time, to see which strategy works better.

In the age of Google, where it is simple to find the information about just about any local business on the leading search engine, you might ask just how relevant YellowPages.com actually is. Well, based on data from compete, it’s doing pretty well, with traffic growing steadily. Daily deals could only serve to help that, I would think.

The daily deals space, while getting more crowded, is also getting more interesting in that it seems to be merging with the location-based service industry in some ways. For example, look at Groupon’s acquisition of Whrrl. Foursquare, the poster-child of the check-in app space is doing more and more for businesses to make offers to customers. The company also has not ruled out potential partnerships with Google.

It makes perfect sense that these two spaces would come together. Deals give people a reason (beyond the gaming element) to use check-in apps, and they give the apps better monetization strategies. With more consumers carrying smartphones around in their pockets, deals are going to be around every corner, as businesses advertise with this growing number of services.

Deal aggregation is going to be key moving forward.

May 3, 2011
Facebook Social Deals May Be Groupon’s “PointCast Moment”

A new offering called Facebook Social Deals was launched in five cities today. It’s a service similar to Groupon or LivingSocial, where merchants offer highly discounted, time-sensitive deals to their customers. The product is well-integrated with the overall Facebook experience, it’s not intrusive, and it has sociality built-right-in, enabling individuals to not only buy deals, but also promote them to their networks using other familiar capabilities such as the Facebook “Like” button.

It may be a mortal blow to Groupon, the current leader of the daily deals pack.

The illustrative example here for Groupon may be a company from Bubble 1.0 called PointCast. PointCast was the hottest property on the dotcom block, and had been the target of a $450 million buyout offer from News Corp in 1997. PointCast, certain they were on to the Next Big Thing, spurned the offer (not unlike how Groupon rejected Google’s $6 billion offer just a few short months ago).

Shortly after PointCast rejected the News Corp offer, it fell out of favor with customers, suitors and investors, and went into a corporate death spiral from which it never recovered. After being valued at almost half-a-billion dollars, PointCast was sold a short time later for a mere $7 million bucks.

So, what do you think? Does Groupon have something that’s so unique and valuable that it can withstand the Facebook onslaught that was launched today? Or are they about to get slaughtered?

Originally published on The Social Customer Manifesto

April 26, 2011
Facebook Social Deals Uses News Feed as Advantage over Groupon, Google, LivingSocial

Facebook finally launched its new Social Deals feature today, but only in five cities in the U.S. Facebook had previously unveiled a Deals service based on check-ins to Facebook Places, but it’s been long expected that they would go more for the Groupon space.

That space is getting more crowded, and many are wondering if Groupon can maintain its lead. LivingSocial is nothing to shake a stick at either, and there are plenty of smaller, deals sites aimed at specific local markets and verticals. Then there’s Google. It seems unlikely that any one company will be able to dominate here like say search or social networks.

That said, if anyone can, you’d have to wonder if it would be the dominant search engine or the dominant social network. Both Facebook and Google have huge advantages over rivals, given their enormous user bases, and the ability to insert deals where users already are.

Google just unveiled Google Offers last week. It will involve email just like Groupon, but Google has a lot of other weapons it could potentially use, with Place Pages, AdWords, Gmail, Latitude, etc.

With Facebook Deals, users will also subscribe to emails, but they can also appear in the news feed. That’s one area where Facebook should have a huge leg up on Google and anyone else.

Facebook is starting with Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco with the Deals space. It’s being called a “test” but there’s little doubt that this will be a full-blown product for Facebook.

Businesses are still getting used to Facebook marketing. Getting seen in the news feed is perhaps the most important part of that. This week, Facebook marketing firm Buddy Media released a report, giving brands tips for capitalizing on Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm (the basis for what Facebook shows users in their news feed).

Deals will present a whole new option, and deals in general have already proven to be massively popular among consumers. Many Facebook users check their news feed multiple times throughout the day, which should ensure conversions, as long as the deals are attractive.

April 26, 2011
Google Offers – Is Groupon in Trouble?

I’m sure you recall when Groupon turned down a reported $6 billion offer from Google a few months back. Many (not all) thought Groupon was crazy to turn it down, considering how many daily deal/offers sites have been coming out of the woodwork, and how easy such a concept is to replicate.

Do you think Google will take over as the leader in Groupon’s space? Comment here.

Google made no secret of the fact that it would be aggressively pursuing this market, after Groupon declined the offer. Google’s Marissa Mayer pointed out that they already had some Groupon-like products, but that didn’t include a Groupon clone, per se. That is until word came out about Google Offers in early February, when Mashable obtained an official fact sheet about the product. This week, Google officially announced the beta version of it with a few select cities (Portland, NYC, Oakland, and San Francisco).

It does indeed appear to be a Groupon clone, sending daily deal offers to users via email (which I’m sure is only the beginning). The actual document has been deleted, but it did appear that the service would use Google checkout.

Groupon may have a head start in this space, but Google has several clear advantages (depending upon the extent of which they capitalize on): search, Place Pages, AdWords, AdSense, Latitude, Android, and Gmail come immediately to mind. Then there’s that whole expanding “social layer” thing.

It would appear that Groupon is vulnerable in terms of being the leader in the deals space. Last month, we looked at the narrowing gap between Groupon and its biggest competitor LivingSocial. Articles like this one called “Why Groupon Sucks For Merchants and LivingSocial Doesn’t” probably don’t help too much. That particular article compares the merchant experience of Groupon advertisers to “dealing with a child”.

Groupon has been making a name for itself, with some high profile (Super Bowl), if controversial, advertising. But LivingSocial isn’t shying away from TV ads either, and it has some Amazon money (as well as money from others) backing it up.

According to TechCrunch, Groupon just got a new $6 million infusion of capital, following a recent $16.2 million round. Just this week, Groupon also acquired Pelago, the makers of the Whrrl location-based service check-in app. This could turn out to be a huge deal for Groupon, as Foursquare continues to gain traction in the location-based market, as an attractive way to promote local businesses. Of course Google isn’t shying away from that area either (neither is Facebook for that matter), and Foursquare doesn’t seem opposed to the idea of partnering with Google.

Google may be the most dangerous threat to all players in this space. It has an extensive history in local and a slew of tools to help facilitate the success of a local business-based offers product. Even with the search engine’s recent Panda update, local seems to have come out ahead. Having a mobile platform like Android can’t hurt either.

Will Google Offers be a success? Tell us what you think.

April 22, 2011
eBay Buys WHERE to Expand in Local and Mobile

eBay announced today that it has agreed to acquire location media company WHERE in an effort to better position eBay in the local and mobile commerce spaces.

“Local commerce companies like WHERE are blurring the lines between in-store and online shopping,” said PayPal’s Amanda Pires on the company blog. “By giving people hyper-local, relevant retailer information and deals on their mobile phones, we see a huge opportunity for local merchants to reach more buyers, and for consumers to get more choice and value when they shop.”

“As a first step, we plan to integrate PayPal into the WHERE mobile app to make it even easier for PayPal customers to take advantage of the local deals,” she addeed. “As John Donahoe said at analyst day, eBay Inc. is at the forefront of a new retail landscape, which is more convenient, more accessible, more local and – and more relevant to more consumers than ever before.”

eBay has been making some major moves in terms of expanding throughout the growing e-commercesphere. These include buying Milo, GSI Commerce, Brands4Friends, Critical Path and a majority stake in GittiGidiyor.

“Mobile and local are key areas for us,” said Pires. “This announcement builds on the acquisition of Milo late last year, bringing even more great deals and value to consumers. Since we don’t compete with our merchants, we are in a unique position to partner with retailers of all sizes and help people shop and pay anytime, anywhere and in any way they want.”

@WHERE
WHEREJust to clear things up, eBay was not started because of a pez collection. 21 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

From @WHERE’s TwitPic

WHERE has 4 million users, offers local daily deals, and has apps available for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm, and Windows Phone. The company tells advertisers they can reach 50 million users on their hyper-local ad network.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

April 20, 2011
Groupon Acquires Pelago, Makers of Whrrl

Groupon has acquired Pelago, the makers of the Whrrl location-based service/check-in app.

Pelago CEO and co-founder Jeff Holden took to the company blog to announce the news. He says:

You might think at first that this is strange… But it actually makes a ton of sense. Many people think of Groupon as one thing: the inventor of the daily deal. But as it often is in such cases, there is an amazing vision behind the company that goes far beyond what is visible on the surface today. Whrrl’s mission has always been to increase the possibility of adventure in our daily real-world lives, and to that end, we invented an idea economy (with Whrrlbot as its inexhaustible champion!) It turns out that Groupon has a very similar mission, except they approached it by creating a new kind of deal economy.

The mission alignment of the two companies and the fact that we’ve taken very different approaches is a big part of what makes this marriage non-strange, and in fact, very complementary and compelling. And what made this a no-brainer was Groupon’s massive adoption and meteoric growth. The opportunity to take the collective brain power and technology of our two companies and point them at a phenomenon already at huge scale is virtually impossible to refuse.

It doesn’t sound all that strange to me. Clearly, there’s more and more overlap between the location-based services/check-in apps space and the deals space, and with Google and Facebook getting more heavily involved with both of them, I’d expect to see more of acquisitions/partnerships of this nature.

As for Whrrl itself, it’s getting shutdown.

“Think of it as the end of the first act of a long and complex play,” says Holden. “You would be right to expect that the ideas underpinning Whrrl and many of the inventions contained within may reemerge under the Groupon banner.”

So Groupon as a check-in app? Why not.

At ad:tech NY last November, we heard about some interesting things brands were already doing with Whrrl. The Groupon brand should only entice businesses that much more.

Improvements in Groupon’s own service an only help it in the fight against the mounting competition in the deals space with clones and local/vertical-based versions coming out of the woodwork, not to mention Google, Facebook, and the increasingly popular Foursquare.

The good news is that businesses who want to advertise with these types of services are getting more and more options. Perhaps even better news is that many of these options have the potential to attract large audiences.

April 18, 2011
Living Social Offers Dollar Lunches in Washington D.C.

LivingSocial has a slew of dollar lunch deals today for people in Washington D.C. Beleive it or not, they’re selling out like hotcakes.

The deals are incredibly popular, as you can imagine. The company is also living up to the “social” in its name. The Twitter reaction has been astounding.

@CacieFacie
Acacia Waller #dollarlunchday #dollarlunchday #dollarlunchday #dollarlunchday #dollarlunchday #dollarlunchday #dollarlunchday #dollarlunchday 53 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

@JessicaEWilson
Jessica Wilson#dollarlunchday I could not ask for a better way to spend my Friday. 25 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

@LandauDC
Simon LandauBosses: Expect your employees to take extra long lunch breaks today. @livingsocial #dollarlunchday lines downtown are crazy right now 25 minutes ago via Mobile Web · powered by @socialditto

Imagine if this had been nationwide.

Of course LivingSocial is doing its part to converse with fans:

@LivingSocial
LivingSocialLive in DC but no smartphone? No worries, we’ve got you! Friday’s $1 instant deals can be purchased right from the website! #dollarlunchday 17 hours ago via HootSuite · powered by @socialditto

@LivingSocial
LivingSocial@msto We aim to please. Hope this kicks off a great weekend for you. 1 hour ago via HootSuite · powered by @socialditto

@LivingSocial
LivingSocialAttention $1 lunch lovers! If you’ve purchased, texts are a-comin’. If they haven’t by dining hour, simply give the merchant your last name! 1 hour ago via HootSuite · powered by @socialditto

Can we expect LivingSocial to do this in other markets? We’ll see. Frankly, they could stand to expand into more markets to begin with. Where’s Lexington?

Earlier this week, LivingSocial announced a partnership with Next Jump, a platform for company rewards and loyalty programs.

April 15, 2011
eBay Buys Majority Stake In Turkish Site

eBay’s international presence is growing larger in a significant way today. eBay announced this morning that it’s taking control of GittiGidiyor, a company that was founded in 2001 and qualifies as the leading online marketplace in Turkey.

eBay now owns 93 percent of outstanding GittiGidiyor shares, and although terms of the transaction were not disclosed, eBay fans and shareholders should rest assured that this move isn’t as random as it may sound.

For starters, eBay actually bought a minority stake in GittiGidiyor about four years ago, so it’s had plenty of time to learn how the organization operates and be sure of its profitability.

A couple other interesting facts: GittiGidiyor has over 6.4 million registered users, and according to Internet World Stats eBay highlighted, Turkey is the world’s 12th largest market for Internet usage (with a penetration rate of 45 percent).

Anyway, Doug McCallum, eBay’s senior vice president in Europe, said in a statement, “We knew that when we acquired a stake in GittiGidiyor that we were buying into an excellent business in an exciting ecommerce market. Since 2007, we have been impressed with GittiGidiyor, its people, its VC investor iLab and its successful approach to ecommerce. There is a lot that we can learn from GittiGidiyor, and much we can share.”

As for how everyone else is reacting, eBay’s stock is down 1.52 percent so far this morning, but given that the entire market is experiencing a steep decline, this one development may not be entirely (or at all) to blame.

April 12, 2011
Google, IAC Extend Partnership Through 2016

Procrastination and a fear of commitment apparently didn’t enter the equation when it came to renewing a longstanding search and advertising agreement between Google and IAC. This morning, IAC announced that the two companies have extended their deal through March of 2016.

The original deal wasn’t set to expire until the end of 2012, so the timing of this development comes as a bit of a surprise. Most people and organizations cut things a little closer, and a lot could change between now and then in terms of search technology or even the value of a dollar (economists seem to mention the word “inflation” a lot these days).

Today’s announcement signals that Google’s been an excellent partner for IAC, anyway, which is good news for both sides.

The announcement could even push other companies to give the idea of a search and advertising deal with Google a second look.

Greg Blatt, the CEO of IAC, stated, “Our Search business has grown meaningfully over the past five years, from $58 million in Operating Income Before Amortization in 2006 to $125 million last year, and generated pre-tax free cash flow in excess of $500 million over that period. The industry continues to grow at attractive rates and we have every opportunity for continued growth and success.”

Unfortunately for investors, not all the news is so cheery, as both companies’ stocks are sinking today. Google’s stock is down 0.35 percent and IAC’s stock is down 1.29 percent at the moment, although there are sure to be many other factors at work.

April 11, 2011
Google Latitude Check-In Offers Take On Foursquare

Back in February, Google added check-ins to Google Latitude, the company’s social location-based service. The feature found its way to the iPhone a couple weeks ago.

During SXSW, Google rolled out check-in offers for 60 places around Austin, Texas, and now they’ve launched check-in offers all across the United States for Android and iPhone users.

“Checking in lets you share the places that you visit and add context to your Latitude location for friends and family,” explains Douglas Gresham, a Software Engineer on the Google Maps for mobile team. “At the same time, you can keep a history of where you’ve been while gaining status at the places you visit the most. When you gain status at places, they can now reward your loyalty with check-in offers. From discounts to a free snack, check-in offers let places give you an extra reason to keep coming back.”

“By default, you can become a Regular, VIP, or Guru at places, but we’re also letting partners create their own status levels for you to achieve (coming soon on iPhone). For example, you can become a Champion of Taste at Quiznos or an AE Gold Shopper at American Eagle Outfitters, unlocking their check-in offers at the same time.”

Foursquare recently launched seven new types of offers for businesses to extend to customers. This move by Google should be seen as a direct competitor to this.

Google may have started this at SXSW, but I can tell you from having been there that Foursquare’s presence was much more widely felt throughout the event and the town.

Currently, Google partners on check-in offers include American Eagle, Quiznos, Arby’s, RadioShack, Finish Line, and Macy’s. This will no doubt get expanded much more widely in the future.

Read here for some other ideas on how to use Google Latitude for business.

April 8, 2011
Yahoo Exec Predicts Acquisition Spree

Again and again, Yahoo executives have stressed that the company isn’t going anywhere; they’ve said its search pact with Microsoft, for example, isn’t a sign that it’s giving up. And now, one exec has made a much more forceful assertion, indicating that Yahoo intends to make lots of acquisitions this year.

Steven Mitzenmacher holds the title “Senior Director, Corporate Development” at Yahoo. That puts him in an excellent position to speak on the subject of acquisitions, even if his opinions are a little controversial (more on that in a minute).

So, according to Amir Efrati, here’s what Mitzenmacher said at the Global Technology Symposium: Yahoo’s leaders “want to do more” in terms of purchasing other companies, and Yahoo is “gearing up for a very big year” in that respect.

Mitzenmacher indicated that things are already in motion, too, stating, “[W]e’ve come out now guns blazing.”

That might or might not be a good idea. It’s possible Yahoo will buy the next Facebook/Twitter/whatever, of course, and some folks might argue that Yahoo needs to make a big, bold bet at this point.

On the other hand, Yahoo’s upset many investors over the years by making less-than-wise purchases (and by deciding to “sunset” or merge some properties), and it’s not going to win new fans by throwing more money away.

On that note, we’ll point out that Mitzenmacher said that the $1.6 billion Google paid for YouTube in 2006 is “still crazy.”

Also, in case anybody’s curious, Yahoo’s stock closed down 2.06 percent today, while Google’s stock dipped 0.67 percent.

March 28, 2011
eBay To Buy GSI Commerce For $2.4 Billion

GSI Commerce, a public company that deals in ecommerce and interactive marketing services, should soon be the property of eBay. eBay announced this morning that it intends to acquire GSI for a whopping $2.4 billion.

GSI has built up an impressive business in some respects. Its clients include Adidas, Bath & Body Works, FAO Schwarz, Godiva, HP, Major League Baseball, Mattel, the NBA, the NFL, PBS, RadioShack, and Zales, among many other noteworthy organizations.

eBay President and CEO John Donahoe stated as a result, “The acquisition of GSI . . . will significantly strengthen our ability to connect buyers and sellers worldwide. Combined with eBay Marketplaces and PayPal, we believe GSI will enhance our position as the leading strategic global commerce partner of choice for retailers and brands of all sizes.”

eBay should also see an upside in terms of corporate “synergies” (an estimated $60 million by 2013 if the acquisition closes as planned during the third quarter of this year).

There already appears to be a bit of controversy surrounding the purchase, though. GSI’s financial performance hasn’t been great (its stock was down about 30 percent year-over-year prior to eBay’s big announcement), and eBay’s offer of $2.4 billion (or $29.95 per share) represents a premium of 51 percent over GSI’s value at the end of March 25th.

That’s led some eBay shareholders to back away and send its stock down 2.05 percent so far this morning, even as the Dow and the Nasdaq are up 0.23 percent and 0.19 percent, respectively.

March 28, 2011
Android Payments System Could Pit Google Against Groupon

Payments looks to be one of the most important battle fields on which the big tech companies are engaging. We’ve known for some time that Google would be getting into the NFC-based payment realm – in other words, you will be able to go to a restaurant or store and pay with your Android smartphone by waving or tapping, as opposed to having your credit card swipe.

Rumor has it that Apple will go a similar route with the iPhone, but it’s looking like it might be a while.

The credit card companies are on board. According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Mastercard and Citigroup are partnering with Google to “embed technology in Android mobile devices that would allow consumers to make purchases by waving their smartphones in front of a small reader at the checkout counter” – this according to “people familiar with the matter.”

Let the record show that Google has already provided NFC technology in the Gingerbread version of Android, and the Nexus S phone.

The journal finds that this is about more than just Android and payments, however. It has important implications for Google’s core source of revenue – advertising. According to the report:

The planned payment system would allow Google to offer retailers more data about their customers and help them target ads and discount offers to mobile-device users near their stores, these people said. Google isn’t expected to get a cut of the transaction fees.

…

These phone users also would be able to get targeted ads or discount offers, which Google hopes to sell to local merchants. They also could manage credit-card accounts and track spending through an application on their smartphone, the people said.

Remember when Google offered to buy Groupon, and we were all waiting to see how Google would approach the deals space after being rejected? Well, here it is – or at least part of it. Marissa Mayer recently made a point of noting that Google already has some Groupon-like products. I don’t expect that they’ll stop looking for more ways to penetrate the space either.

Interestingly enough, the whole cash register approach is also something Groupon itself is looking into. As reported earlier this month, the company is in talks with cash register manufacturers, trying to get Groupon-friendly features installed, and intends to start testing on the approach.

As far as the Google story, it will reportedly be VeriFone supplying the cash register systems. Bloomberg recently reported: “The company will pay for installation of thousands of special cash-register systems from VeriFone Systems Inc. (PAY) at merchant locations, said one of the people, who requested anonymity because Google’s plans haven’t been made public.”

VeriFone is the company that recently launched a smear campaign against another payment acceptance company – Square. VeriFone CEO Douglas Bergeron criticized Square’s security and showed off a skimming application to prove his point – only his point was widely disputed by Internet posters, and of course by Square co-founder Jack Dorsey, who noted that his accusations overlooked “protections already built into your credit card.”

In fact, it is these same protections that will allegedly keep NFC technology safe for transferring payments as well.

The fruits of Google’s initiative are expected to be released this year.

March 28, 2011
Yahoo-Delicious Sale Rumors Swirl (Again)

One way or another, it’s sounding increasingly likely that Delicious will wind up with a new owner. After a rumor suggested last week that Yahoo had sold the property for $5 million, a report’s now claimed that Yahoo is about to sell Delicious for perhaps 30 percent of that sum.

Jay Yarow, the author of the fresh report, wrote, “Yahoo is about to close a deal to sell bookmarking site Delicious for $1-$2 million, says a source familiar with the discussions.”

Then, although this is heading a bit further out on a limb, Yarow continued, “Our source isn’t sure what company is buying it, but says it’s a ‘strategic partner,’ something like StumbleUpon.”

The possibility of a sale has caught the Delicious community’s attention, in any event, and with good reason. Four months ago, an internal Yahoo document leaked and let the world know that Yahoo intended to “sunset” Delicious, so an acquisition would allow for its continued existence.

A sale would count as something of a victory for Yahoo, too, at least compared to just killing Delicious. The PR would be worth a little, after all (versus being responsible for terminating the well-known property), and $1-$2 million is better than nothing in terms of payments.

It’s of course not great for Yahoo that the rumored sale price dropped by at least $3 million in the space of seven days, however, so we’ll be sure to keep an eye on the situation.

One last financial tidbit: Yahoo’s stock is up 1.64 percent so far this morning, putting it ahead of the Dow (up 1.18 percent) and Nasdaq (up 0.94 percent).

UPDATE: A Yahoo spokesperson contacted WebProNews to say, “As we have mentioned in the past, part of our organizational streamlining involves shifting our investment in underperforming or off-strategy products to put better focus on our core strengths and fund new innovation in the next year and beyond. We’re actively thinking about the future of Delicious and we believe there is a home outside the company that would make more sense for the service, our users and our shareholders. We’re in the process of exploring a variety of options and will communicate specific plans when appropriate.”

March 18, 2011