Citysearch Enters Daily Deals Fray

It’s getting pretty crowded in the daily deal space these days. Groupon and LivingSocial are big enough and backed by big bucks but the hundreds (maybe thousands) of variations on the theme are making it pretty messy in the deal of the day space.

Today add to the list Citysearch. They are taking a slightly different approach in that they will serve as a deal aggregator. MediaPost reports

Citysearch plans to unveil a daily deals offering and mobile platform Tuesday that automatically pushes coupons to consumers based on location.

As more businesses drive consumers from the Web into physical stores through local coupon campaigns, Citysearch will tap its CityGrid Media advertising network, which includes thousands of advertisers, to aggregate deals. It also signed with Groupon and The DealMap for the same purpose. The company plans to expand its network in the future.

Skyhook will integrate its location engine into the deals by Citysearch for Android. At launch, the mobile application becomes available on Android and iPhone.

As this social media phenomenon of daily deals continues to evolve this will not be the last of many variations on the theme. How Citysearch approaches the space will likely determine its success although, honestly, it is not usually top of mind like it once was for consumer information. Will this type of offering put it back on the map, so to speak?

Despite a crowded field, technology built into Citysearch’s app, which automatically pushes the coupon to the consumer after opting in, could provide the key to success. JP Bedoya, senior director at Citysearch, says the application also relies on “smart type ahead” technology, which makes suggestions on possible places and deals, based on location or topic.

“Smart type ahead” technology, huh?

There will be the opportunity to opt-in for location-based offerings automatically or a user can do the old-fashioned type in their location. Honestly, I sure hope that the mobile identification aspect works better than the desktop locator which gave me deals in a town that is 45 minutes from where I am typing this (and I have never been to but who’s counting).

How much room is there in the daily deal space? What are you interested in with regard to a daily deal offering? Is the Groupon way good enough? Are you looking for as many options as you can handle or is this starting to feel a bit cluttered already?

Your thoughts?

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Can LivingSocial Really Give Groupon A Run for Its Money?

We have talked about the LivingSocial v. Groupon situation here before. It’s always interesting how readers respond. There appears to be a very misguided line of thinking that Groupon has the lead in the daily deal space that is insurmountable and all others should just fold up their tents and call it a day.

Well, Amazon didn’t just give LivingSocial $175 million because it was feeling generous. It did it because it felt like there was room to take a shot at Groupon. If the traffic chart below from Experian’s Hitwise is any indication they may be right.

The key right now is that LivingSocial has to maintain the momentum that was generated by their Amazon gift card play earlier this month. That show of strength did wonders for the brand and took a bite out of Groupon’s traffic as well. If they let it go though and don’t push to keep the interest level high this could end up just being a one time event that will be a blip rather than a trend.

I think the whole Groupon frenzy has shown just how quickly things can get out of control in this current market. Groupon apparently thumbed its nose at Google’s $6 billion offer then has recently tried to tone down IPO talk that was placing the company at a roughly $15 billion valuation. All of that seemed to happen too quickly to be real and this quote from a Crain’s Chicago Business article this week shows that Groupon may be trying to dial back the hype a bit.

Groupon Inc. hasn’t decided whether to go public, board member Eric Lefkofsky said.

“There’s no definitive answer,” Mr. Lefkofsky said Tuesday. “We’ve made no decision at the present moment whether we will or won’t. We’re talking to bankers. We do talk to bankers all the time.”

Speculation about a potential Groupon IPO has been rampant in recent weeks, but insiders are downplaying the idea. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason told reporters Monday in Europe: “We’ve met with a bunch of bankers. We’re exploring whether or not it makes sense for us.”

Now the dust is starting to settle and the hypnotic hold Groupon seemed to have on everyone is being lifted a bit by a competitor. This is the kind of thing we all had hoped for in the search space so Google would have to try harder. In an area as new and as repeatable as the daily deal space there may be some hope for at least two real players to emerge if these traffic reports are any indication. Oh and let’s not forget that Google is working on its Offers offering which may or not get traction but at least it’s being done with a huge cash war chest to support it.

What’s your take on the daily deal space? Is it being over-hyped? Is it the future? Will Groupon stay out in front or are they truly vulnerable?

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Don’t Count Out LivingSocial As It Buys Majority Stake In European Deal Site

In the online deal space there is no doubting that Groupon is the 800 lb gorilla of the bunch. They have just received a whole lotta cash for their operations and their shareholders and are busy buying up competitors.

Every space, however, has its initial competitors that put up a fight for a piece of the pie. In the case of location based services, Foursquare has (or better said had?) Gowalla to push them. In search, there is Ya-Bing trying to play the well-funded David to Google’s Goliath. In social there is Facebook and….well, forget social. So anyway, in the online deal space LivingSocial is trying to stay in the game against Groupon. They have received a healthy $183 million investment themselves and it appears they are putting it to use.

Over at TechCrunch we learn

Social commerce startup LivingSocial this morning announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Europe’s Let’s Bonus (which sounds an awful lot like “let’s bone us”, but I digress). The partnership brings LivingSocial operations to a total of ten countries, with the addition of Let’s Bonus’ Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Mexico presences.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

LivingSocial says it now boasts more than 16 million subscribers, is live in more than 170 markets, and is projected to book in excess of $500 million in revenue in 2011.

Note: I left in Robin Wauter’s ‘editorial comment’ because it made me laugh.

This is not the only move that LivingSocial has made and if you are a subscriber to their service you may have noticed their attempt to differentiate themselves from Groupon by having different types of deals through different ‘deal ‘channels’ including LivingSocial Escapes (from purchase of Urban Escapes), LivingSocial Family Edition and Campus Deals.

On the infrastructure side, the new group that LivingSocial holds the majority stake in has 200 employees and offices in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Rome, Milan, Lisbon, Buenos Aires and Mexico. They offer daily deals on gourmet dinners and other higher end activities.

All of this makes for some interesting times in the online deals space. Many have given the vertical’s crown to Groupon because they have the infrastructure and have garnered the most press of any other player in the increasingly fragmented space by far. Others are trying to poke holes in their model saying that it is easily replicated but the scale issue is a tough nut to crack for sure.

All the while LivingSocial is putting up impressive numbers. Started in 2007 and projected to do $500 million in 2011. That’s no small feat. It’s worth everyone’s while to give them serious consideration for use in addition to Groupon because most would say that if Groupon becomes the Google of the online deal space that would be bad. Of course, I didn’t even mention Google as a competitor in this space which is an idea tossed around a bit as well.

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