Results for "Deal Market Place"
Google buys DealMap a 15 month old Deal Startup
There has been speculation for last few days that Google is going to acquire a discount deal startup named The DealMap.

The Menlo Park startup, on Monday, put an end to the speculation, by telling the world that they are thrilled to be acquired by Google. There’s no word on regarding the actual financial details of the deal, from any of the parties though.

With the acquisition of DealMap, Google’s acquisition tally in the last two years, crosses 70 companies, covering a wide range of technologies and skills.

A bit about DealMap and what it means to be acquired by Google:

The DealMap is a 15-month old company. A rather late entrant to the deal market place dominated by other local deals/ deal-of-the-day sites, like GroupOn, the start-up managed to grow quickly to serve over 2 million users with its website and mobile apps.

In the blogpost, DealMap underlines that it believes Google provides the ideal platform to help them accelerate their growth and fulfill their mission. Google, they believe, will help them innovate in new and unexplored areas of commerce.

Google sees the buy as, picking the right property at its infancy, a step which will benefit its commerce offerings, with DealMap helping it build even better products and services for consumers and merchants.

Why Deal Marketplace so Hot of late:

There are a few reasons to it. With the meteoric rise of social networking in recent years, local bargain has crossed the boundaries of individual bargain and geography (people can get group bargains for friends present miles apart). The improvements in locations based services has complemented the precision of finding a bargain as well. In short, the mix of online social networking and location based services, a market is created which is largely local in scope but is linked to a national or even international network.

Deal marketplaces like LivingSocial and Groupon have benefited by managing the above mix perfectly.

Another important factor which helped deal sites, to continue standing, after the initial success, is the growing affluence in the developing markets; which provided deal sites one important thing at the right moment and continue providing that – Users. With a large number of people in developing countries, being introduced to fine dining, and fine living each day, deal sites can see such markets for growth.

No wonder, Google attempted to purchase Groupon near the end of 2010 for a reported $6 million, but the deal couldn’t materialize. But as deal sites were a hot commodity among private investors too, Groupon instead chose to go public, with an IPO in the second half of 2012.

As a prime player on web, Google can’t afford to remain absent at deals market, hence it chose to develop its own discount deal service, called Offers. The site got launched at the end of May this year.

What makes the acquisition important for Google is that, Offers only serves Portland, New York City, and the San Fransisco Bay Area; with Dealmap's resources (including over 450 deal sources) the search giant can expect to expand its reach. ---------

Anil Singh Friday, August 5, 2011
Groupon Revenue grew 20 fold last year: tells Memo
According to an internal email memo written by Andrew Mason , CEO of Groupon, early January to the company staff , and leaked to WSJ,

Groupon, the pioneer of Deals Market, saw its revenues grow 20-fold last year. The company’s revenue grew from $33million to $750 million in 2010, with $280 million coming from international operations.

Quite elated by the company’s phenomenal growth, the CEO praises the staff for their achievement and cautions them against complacency saying that rivals are going great lengths to steal the company’s market share.

Mason hoped that those numbers would grow to billions in 2011.

Mason closed the email with the following words of wisdom (something any entrepreneur can follow):

Life is too short to be part of another cookie cutter company. Surprise reminds people that they are alive, that they haven’t seen it all. Let’s make Groupon the reason that people wake up every day. ---------

Anil Singh Saturday, February 26, 2011
Google Offers -- A Groupon like service in making
We know Google wants to enter the Deal marketplace. Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., reportedly considered acquiring Yelp for more than $500 million. And last month, it reportedly tried to buy Groupon for somewhere between $5 billion and $6 billion, but was rejected. Groupon has since raised an additional $950 million in venture capital funding.

Now Associated press reports that Google Inc., which has expanded beyond its core search operations into mobile phones and other products, is developing a local coupon service similar to Groupon.

Modeled on Groupon Inc., the service, Google Offers, will offer time-limited deals from local vendors, such as restaurants; fetching a diner $20 worth of food at a local café for Ten dollars.

Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program, said Google Inc. spokesman Nate Tyler.

Google has not disclosed the details and the time by when offers will be available.

What competition awaits Google?

While Groupon is Google's most obvious competitor when it comes to offering local deals, the field of coupon sites has rapidly grown to include sites such as LivingSocial and Tippr. Flash sales site Gilt Groupe and the newsletter DailyCandy also offer local deals. Plus every other big player is running some version of deals marketplace too.

What Google has, to excel?

Almost every tool, that can render great deals to users locally. Currently, Google's Places service lets local businesses set up pages where the owners can post photos and other promotional information, and customers can write reviews. Then, these places can appear as pinpoints on Google's popular map network, Google Maps. If these two are properly integrated with Google’s expansion in local advertising from last year, then the concoction can be effective. ---------

Anil Singh Saturday, January 22, 2011
Chinese Search Giant Baidu Launches a Deal site
China's top search engine Baidu, on Wednesday launched its own Groupon-like platform (Deal site ). The new site will not only provide discounts to consumers, but will also allow businesses to freely promote their own group buying deals online.

Baidu launched a beta version of its group buying site on Wednesday, as part of its Youa e-commerce information platform. In Chinese, the site is currently called Youa Tuangou, which means "group buy".

Baidu is also letting merchants, by giving them tools, set up their own discounted deals through its Baidu Shenbian website, which provides consumer reviews on restaurants, hotels and other places to shop for goods or services. Those deals will then be promoted on the site and through Youa Tuangou.

Baidu’s closest rival in China, the Google, from whom Baidu quickly stole search share in world’s most polulaous country; is rumored to have acquired the U.S. based deal market veteran, Groupon.

Notably, Baidu's new platform’s approach is similar to a new service Groupon is launching this week. Groupon’s said new service, just like Baidu’s, allows businesses to create their own deals through Groupon Stores, reports PC World. Businesses, using Groupon, were demanding this feature for some time now.

At the same time, Groupon has made a move into Asia by buying three websites in the region, two of which serve Hong Kong and Taiwan. The company, however, has yet to expand into mainland China. ---------

Anil Singh Thursday, December 2, 2010
Google buys Deal site Groupon for $2.5 billion: Rumor
Google has just purchased Groupon, a pioneer in Deals marketplace, for $2.5 billion, according to an unnamed insider who spoke with VatorNews. Neither Google nor Groupon could be reached for comment to confirm the report.

Groupon, the hot deal-a-day site, boasts revenues upward of $50 million a month. ---------

Anil Singh Tuesday, November 30, 2010
AOL enters Deal Of The Day market Place
Pioneered by Groupon, a service that sends its approximately two million members a coupon each day offering a discount at a local merchant; deal of the day market has fostered hundreds of clones in recent times. Groupon’s idea has good for everyone-- Consumers get a deal. Merchants get increased foot traffic, some of which they hope to convert into loyalty.

No surprise, this year, Groupon is expected to rake in $350 million or more. And earlier in 2010, the property was valued at $1 billion when it obtained $135 million in capital from Digital Sky Technologies, which is also an investor in social networking gamer Zynga.

Now another entrant, this time a big name is entering the Deal market-- The AOL.

AOl has made its offering public today on a "coming soon" page.

It’s obvious that AOL will bring much of the features top deal sites have; but one notable addition in the mix is the “personal deal”. This is how AOL defines personal Deal-- "If you want a deal, we listen and offer up your bargain-of-choice on a silver platter at an astronomically discounted price, helping you stretch your hard-earned dollar to infinity and beyond”. Al right this seems to be like the Google offer which informs a searcher that its group of experts can search the thing, the users himself can’t find.

Now with AOL coming in direct competion with Groupon, it’s to be seen what succeeds –AOL’s of distribution muscle through its homepage, AOL Mail, and growing network of local Patch sites (which could be a perfect place to promote local deals); or Groupon’s being a pioneer. ---------

Anil Singh Wednesday, October 6, 2010