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Facebook Deals Launches Tonight & GroupOn Doesn't Stand a Chance

Facebook will unveil its group deals program tonight in 5 US cities according to an embargo-breaking slip-up by the New York Times tonight caught by TechCrunch. Facebook Deals launched 3 months ago in Europe. Tonight, according...


Zuckerberg wins again?
Feel bad for Groupon founder really.

Bevo Ryan

Wow - I guess thats the power of owning the world

Bombastic

He'll probably sue Facebook for stealing his idea. And then a motion picture will be made about it.

juntao65

it's not like people only use one coupon site. groupon's already cemented themselves in consumer's minds. will their growth take a hit? yes. will it be their "demise"? probably not.

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Bevo Ryan

Somewhere right now, the VCs are smacking themselves for rejecting a $6bil offer. Will be interesting to see how this turns out. Very aggressive move by FB, but who could blame them...

blogspotter

I will give 3 months to FB before they pull it, same for google. Yahoo would still be planning by then.

Groupon is run by a team of hardcore sales people who actually go out to see the merchants. And they already have all our emails. Not that FB doesn't.

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Bad Duck

I think FB will rape them. Honestly, groupon dsnt have the kind of dedicated users FB has.

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Bevo Ryan

If Facebook makes a huge deal out of this, i think they can absolutely dominate. There are a large amount of people who dont even know what groupon is yet (fairly new concept). If facebook makes a huge announcement on the front page about this, then everyone will know... in the world... literally. Game, set, match...Facebook

johnmatrix

Yes but you're forgetting most savvy merchants are already on Facebook in the form of running fan pages. Coupons could easily be implemented via the fan pages and marketed directly to the fans of the business... it's fucking perfect

Groupon is fucked!

ret

Yes this I think, groupon hustles to sell the businesses one on one. If Facebook just makes it available but doesn't have a huge sales team out there it may not catch on.

Anyway more competition is good since groupon doesn't exactly give merchants a great deal.

ducks

They did a small test of this in Austin a few months ago. If you checked into any of the original Alamo Drafthouses (movie theaters), you could get a free pint glass when you presented your phone with code to the waiter. I think it did pretty well.

oknetwork

groupon 6b no-deal was the most stupid business decison ever.
Groupon has nothing, NOTHING. website that anyone can do in a week, emails, adwords data maybe, and ripping off merchants

There is nothing stoping anyone to forget about groupon because people never invested their time in it like they did in facebook.

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johnmatrix

It's very frustrating, like in that episode of The Simpsons where Lisa helped Mr Burns make his fortune back after going broke, and he did it by "recycling" sea creatures into a slurry. Burns gave Lisa her cut of the profits, a cheque for $10 million, and she ripped it up because of her conscience...

Magic Hat

Facebook ain't the only ones... starting to look like Groupon should have accepted Google's offer. Now they really have to deal with Google Offers.


http://www.google.com/offers

#stupidbusinessdecisions

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AdHustler

no way they will be killed by this. Yes the market is fragmenting but no single company will own it.

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turbolapp

That would be true if facebook didn't already have the eyeballs. Why go to another site for a service when you're already there?

Sonny Forelli

Please, Facebook will put a dozen fresh college grads on the task and have a hard time penetrating anything beyond already internet savvy merchants.

Groupons power is in their HUGE sales force globally.

Let me know when any of you have the opportunity to turn down 5 Billion and in
I'll change my tune.

davidne

They don't need a sales team near what Groupon has...they're giving the shit away for free to businesses. If the businesses are web conscious enough to use Groupon, there's no doubt that they'd be using facebook also. facebook has more users, and has all the users' marketing information. do the math. they might not die but they're gonna take a pretty big hit.

oknetwork

thing with google and facebook they don't need to rape small business owner for like %50 of that already lowball offer because they don't need to spend on advertising.

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-joe-

This could work in Groupon's favour, to an extent; not in the short term, but maybe in the long term. Facebook will be getting a lot more news exposure about this than Groupon ever would. I'd bet that a good number of the articles would mention Groupon, giving them lots of extra exposure, and possibly positioning them as the underdog.

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TheDean

This.

oknetwork

lol you serious? not unless it gets lots of coverage on sites like tmz . com or is featured on desperate houswifes cause that's what 90% of groupon userbase care about.

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cardine

When Groupon turned down the $6bil offer they knew that Google and Facebook would be making their own copycats. This doesn't change anything for them.

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Magic Hat

Facebook's power is in their ginormous user base that they already can geo-target and target offers based on interests and age groups. I am so tired of seeing offers for day spas and other shit for women on Groupon. I'm a dude in my 20's, serve me offers for bars, restaurants, sporting and music events, and I will spend a lot more money.

Oh, and not to mention the power of Sharing deals/going viral on FB.

I think businesses are becoming much more internet savvy. If they know about Groupon, they know about Facebook.

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Magic Hat

It's one thing to know something is coming, and another when you have that "Oh shit" moment when you see the landing page and know Facebook and Google are breathing down your neck.

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EricVonDoobie

This is getting to the point where we are all going to have to collectively make a conscious effort to stop using Facebook and tell them to fuck off before we're all rocking Facebook sneakers and shit, can't believe how fast this shit blew up over the past few years.

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-joe-

I think it would depend on how much coverage this got from news sources. If there was a lot, I definitely think it could expand groupon's userbase, especially beyond the demo you talk about.

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DrewClement

This is like saying that all the articles about Facebook KILLING Myspace......were great promotion for Myspace.

How did that work out?

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music4mic

^ this. And I think if Google has taught us anything it's that owning the market on one thing doesn't mean you'll own it on another. Any of you guys actually use Google's pathetic attempt at a social network? I think it's safe to say they actually have more failed projects than successful ones.

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Falian

I feel the same way here.

Sure, maybe Facebook turns their Deals feature into a huge success.

I personally think they could have cut a deal with Groupon and integrated it into Facebook. Then Facebook could keep it's staff/money focused on core products, instead of having to hire more employees and add more strain to it's infrastructure.

Willyboy104

I actually work in the Online Marketing department in Groupon UK, and to be honest no one is fretting about the Facebook deals launch, Groupon is huge already, we already have the largest market share, already have millions of subscribers and have already entered the biggest E-commerce market in the world (China).

Personally, I don't see why anyone should be worried in Groupon, Andrew Mason or any of the investors. It will help create more buzz, help push Groupon further, faster and if all goes well in China then Facebook will have NO chance of competing with Groupon merely because the capital, brand awareness and overall asset value of Groupon will be much larger than Facebook even.

However, I do find it quite entertaining and I am looking forward to seeing where Facebook take it.

Also to note, Google is going live with their 'Google Offers' very soon

P.S What is to say Groupon and Facebook won't do a deal, they have already done a deal with our competitor KGB deals, if they were smart this would be for exclusivity but I doubt KGB could harness such a thing being so small and all.

Falian

The fact that they now have a competing product :P. That's like Mcdonalds doing a deal with Wendy's.

Even if they wanted to for some odd reason, that has antitrust violations written all over it.

Great post about Groupon though, I agree with you.

kingfish

I don't think it will necessarily kill groupon I think the nature of these 1 deal a day things is that consumers can be interested and involved in more than one without it being a problem.

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Magic Hat

Yeah, because fast food restaurant chains haven't been bought out by each other before.

Yum! Brands — The world's largest restaurant company: KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, A&W All-American Food, Long John Silver's

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TrumpiaTim

Very interesting to see how GroupOn, Google, and Facebook Deals will all coexist.

Falian

I was talking about two competing companies cutting a deal with each other, not buying each other out.

lukep

Outting yourself on post #4, eh? This ought to be good... Did you join WF to market for groupon?

Oh boy. Groupon may think it's huge but FB has like 600 MILLION MEMBERS, last time I checked. More importantly, FB's user engagment is rated in HOURS per day. How many did you have again? How long do they stay on your site?

Facebook also has something else huge going for them... Everyone already uses it to shows stuff online to their friends... They've made it easier than breathing. It'll be the most natural thing ever for them to market these offers between members... Everybody's friends are already members of facebook! -This should not be overlooked.

1. FB is already there and has more users there than you have users at all.
2. China didn't work out too well for the mighty Google; let's hope you find them more appealing.

Can I haz summa dat weed U smokin?

Us too. Srsly. Hopefully it will make a very funny footnote in history, especially since you turned down $6 Billion from google so recently.

I can hear it now; The term for passing up on an awesome deal and then failing miserably will be called "Grouponing." As in:

"Crap, I really grouponed when I passed up on the new stereo system for $1..."


Not a reason for optimism on your part. Google can't compete with Facebook on this, but they'll take a big chunk of the remaining marketshare away. Goodnight.


Like Falian said, that's be McD's doing a deal with Wendy's. Might be possible between two kids with lemonade stands, but between multi-billion-dollar corporations that would just be plain DUMB.

So, be sure to update your resume. I hear Facebook is hiring...

WebairGerard

Google Offers is in beta will be interesting to see how that goes.

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ZeroOne

I just got Facebook shares at 50% off ($600mm valuation) and Madoff liked it!

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Willyboy104

Ha, if you looked at when I joined Wicked Fire, it was about 2 years ago if not more. Groupon hasn't even been going that long so your comment above isn't justified by anything, merely just an immature remark.

I do wonder though, how I would 'market' Groupon though to Wicked Fire members, please expand on this.

I guess you know nothing about the Chinese E-commerce market, probably just ignorant to the fact I mentioned it's the largest E-commerce market in the world and one that is growing faster than anything other market ever has.

Well, 600 million members may sound like a lot, heck it is a lot, is nothing compared to the Chinese market, and is nothing compared to Groupon's Chinese partner Tencent, yes the company who owns the largest instant messaging service in the world 'QQ' let alone several other extremely large companies that put Western companies such as Facebook and MSN to shame.

With this JV (Joint Venture) I am positive Groupon can attain huge market share in China, and if not well even 20-30% market share would probably be enough.

As you are aware Groupon's business model isn't focused on user-engagement, rather on purchases unlike Facebook where people may keep their tab open all day long people go straight to Groupon purchase and go on again the next day, who cares about user-engagement when you have 'loyal repeat customers'.

Facebook has been an established web company far longer than Groupon, yes Groupon is a lot of hype, but there is a huge business model behind it and a massive market than is only just been uncovered. Facebook maybe as easier as breathing, but heck so is Twitter but you don't see those getting IPO's for $28 billion. At the end of the day, it's return on investment, individual customer value, average customer order, percentage of return customers that makes the business, not how long users engage with the site or how easy the site is to use. Perhaps you should take a long think about that.

Nah dude, my weed is all mine

I think you mistake my point of view, just because I work for Groupon doesn't mean I think Groupon will take over the world, heck they already are doing but if someone comes and takes over Groupon then go ahead, either way it makes for an interesting future inside the group-buying market, I am all for competition and at the end of the day, if I lose a job because Facebook or Google or Living Social do take over and destroy Groupon at least I can put on my CV that I worked for the fastest growing web company ever created, future secured.

Lastly, not sure any of you have actually been reading and keeping up to date with how Facebook deals is going to be integrated and launched but they ARE not only having their OWN sales team but they will ALSO offer deals from OTHER group-buying websites, so that remark about Mcdonalds and wendy's is totally contradicted by this:

These are:

Gilt City
Home Run
FreshGuide
PoweredByTippr
kgbdeals
Plumdistrict
Zozi
OpenTable
Reach Local
Viagogo
aDealio

So, what you see is a company allowing their potential competitors promote THEIR OWN products/deals through Facebook deals.

Look forward to your replies...

DrewClement

^^^

U sure you should be outing all this on a public forum?

Also, you gotta learn to have thicker skin if you are going to start becoming an avid poster around here....or else it could become real embarrassing real fast.

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mgtarheels

Groupon and LivingSocial will destroy facebook in this arena.

Willyboy104

Don't worry I am not taking this personally, I just enjoy a little banter now and again, if a guy wants to talk business let's talk business

Also, all the information I spoke about is available online generally through other media sources, I am not silly enough to discuss anything others wouldn't know about.

Not unless I was high

WickedSick

hahahahaha you're right!

lukep

Well, you never know around here. We're a forum full of marketers and it wouldn't be the first time someone created and aged accounts for future use. -In this case to possibly get marketers here working for groupon, who you now are paid a commission for finding... Just a theory though, not really an accusation.


This was obvious 5 years ago. As mentioned before, this is a forum of marketers.


Now that I didn't know. Touche.

I've heard of QQ before and if Groupons' partnership with them is strong and excludes FB from their "turf" then perhaps Groupon can survive afterall...

In China. Been brushing up on your Mandarin?

If you ain't got the eyeballs you don't fill the sales funnel.

Groupon would have to Create the traffic. This is expensive. FB has all the traffic they'll ever need already.


Just did. Traffic is still very important. Your comrades at QQ better come through for you or it's lights out.


I was responding to your words: "if all goes well in China then Facebook will have NO chance of competing with Groupon merely because the capital, brand awareness and overall asset value of Groupon will be much larger than Facebook even. "

That's pretty pro-groupon talk. -But I give you credit for qualifying it based on QQ's partnership, now that you've spill that can of beans.


I don't know them all, but the bizzes you just mentioned do not appear to be group-deal sites like groupon. Yes, McDonalds can partner with Coke and sell their products. No, McD's cannot partner with Wendy's and sell Frosties. That is a psychological no-no that would basically devastate both brands in the mind of consumers.

amateursurgeon

Facebook won't hurt Groupon majorly - I've worked in this sector, and the value is in the merchant relationships rather than just the userbase.

Unless FB can hire a shit-hot sales team, they won't catch up there. Most of the merchants need selling on this because they're scared of stuff like devaluing their brand.

The sector as a whole is fragmenting - there are very competent niche deal sites springing up all over the place. Those are more of a threat imo.

I don't know if your experience corroborates this Willyboy, but Facebook / Social isn't the main channel for group buying. PPC + Email marketing is where the juice is. FB leads don't pan out anywhere near as well in terms of Lifetime Customer Value.

If Google started slapping Groupon-style signup pages left right and centre (because they are in effect squeeze pages), that would hurt member acquisition a lot more than any Facebook shenanigans.

Willyboy104

My apologies for perhaps coming off a little strongly, it wasn't that I took it personal merely that I enjoy a little banter now and again. As for the commission, I merely get paid a wage when I am in work, unfortunately no commission for me :'(

Also, to make clear I find advertisers and affiliates, mainly CPA and Revenue share based I get paid a monthly wage for this.

Yes very true, many still don't realise how large the Chinese E-commerce market is merely due to the lack of media attention in the West, and that's down to so many failed Western companies, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, eBay...and the rest.

Yeah, QQ have over 700 million subscribers and are in the Alexa top 10, think they are or were about 2nd. As for Facebook in China, it is banned so they have no way of competing there.

As for my Mandarin, it is 'so so', I have been China 3 times already though

Facebook has traffic from subscribers, brand awareness and advertising, such things are necessary when starting a company, these are to a degree still necessary for Groupon however I am pretty certain the ROI per user is far higher for Groupon therefore the expense is covered by those who purchase. In the UK, Groupon is the largest paid advertiser for Google Adwords, so you can imagine how much we spend worldwide on paid advertising, crazy amounts.

Very true, without the JV Groupon would find it incredibly hard in China, there is over 1,000 Groupon clones in China already and with a lack of legislation, copyright and patent laws the Groupon brand can be exploited as much as possible, thus being why Groupon.CN is not even Groupon - GaoPeng.com is Groupon in China.

One thing I do admire, is Groupon's courage for entering the Chinese market when so many others have failed and respect them for actually seeking a strategy to entry, thus being to JV with one of the most powerful, largest companies in China.

The key to succeeding I think is communication & understanding, communication between those employees and managers in China and those who are commanding the launch in Germany, as well as the cultural understand which is necessary for the success, let's just hope Germany realises this.


Yes, KGBDeals is a group-buying company, therefore this is their competition as for the others I don't know all of them since I am more focused on Groupon UK.

Anyways, thanks for the chat, hopefully other members find it useful

papajohn56

inb4 FTC antitrust vs FB

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lukep

For what? Monopolizing the Social Networking Industry?

Hyphen

Not even remotely surprised.