You probably know about Groupon by now. It’s a site that gives users special deals on area restaurants and attractions. They send you the offer, and if you’re interested, you say okay. When enough people say yes, the deal goes into effect. These deals offer incredible savings on all kinds of things.
What you might ignore is last week’s announcement that Google is starting its own service like this. It’s going to be called Google Offers, and it will pretty much work along the same lines as Groupon. Google’s determined to be at the top of the game for all things internet, and they’re not going to let this chance slip by.
Sites like Groupon are really popular now because of the internet’s “mobile revolution.” As more people get mobile devices to use for web surfing, there are more and more people using the web to find local restaurants. They’re surfing the web “on the go” and looking for deals. Because of this trend, Groupon’s number of users is growing in leaps and bounds, and Google wants a piece of this action.
Google Offers Vs Groupon
In fact, several months ago Google approached Groupon and offered them $6 billion to buy them out. Groupon said no and soldiered on; and it’s been recently reported that they’re going to make an initial public offering of $15-20 billion this spring. This means that Groupon’s pretty confident that their service is worth more. And this is what has most likely led Google to starting Google Offers.
Right now, Google Offers is still in the testing phase. But, it has been reported that they’re already drumming up support from businesses, and they’ve already got writers working on writing its offers. Other than that, the company is being pretty tight-lipped about what it’s doing.
This is all part of the “mobile revolution.” Trend watchers are saying that the internet is going to go increasingly mobile in the near future. They point to Asian countries like Japan and Korea, where people are already using mobile more than home internet devices. With all the new handheld devices coming out each year, they predict that this trend will only grow. Local businesses are racing to become competitive in this new marketplace. Aside from Groupon, there are other sites that offer similar services such as LivingSocial.
Google hasn’t said when it will launch Offers. There will definitely be people waiting to take advantage of this new service. What could be better than getting great local deals in your inbox daily?
Guest article written by: Steven Papas is the owner of the VeryBestSoftware Reviews & Coupons, where he gives reviews for well known software and he offers the Symantec Endpoint Protection Coupon and Norton 360 Coupon.
In my opiniion, part of the reason Groupon is successful is its partnership with the local media stations. Sure, you can probably get people to purchase some of the deals by sending out an email blast, but the extra exposure to the general public over tv or radio is a pretty important part I would think. Google doesn’t have that yet, so it will be interesting to see how they spread the word about their deals.
that’s true. It will be interesting. Thanks for your comment.
Groupon has really made it big, and Google seems to face the heat now.. It is trying its best to have the hold in the market by purchasing such companies, but they seem to go the Facebook way.. (and seem to succeed too)
Google is going to have a huuuuge advantage if they integrate Adwords with their Groupon idea – they already have a massive amount of small businesses on board, it could literally be a flip of switch – plus, they already have a ton of data from information they’ve collected from location based services and accounts.
thanks for your comment Murlu.
Thanks for the info this could really help my business.
Kind of gives me the impression that Google is becoming the next Microsoft considering that they are doing a clone of Groupon rather then being innovative.
Some of the recent stuff that Google have produced have failed to take off and now that Groupon has become big they are jumping on the bandwagon.
Google is really advancing fast and I’m not surprised of the next big thing they’re going to launch in the future. Thanks for the info!
Google needs to stop dipping into everything!!!
Google products being on for the long time where we can upload products feed free of charge to its directory. I have not seen much success of Google products as people still using other sites like eBay, Amazon more than that. The real benefit of is for the users who have Adword campaign running on can directly connect their products from Google Base.