Mashable reports that the age of the daily deal may be coming to a close.
Facebook announced last week that it was shutting down its opt-in daily deals feature on the network after a 4 month testing period. Additionally, Yelp!, who have more experience of local businesses than anyone else, is also reducing its daily deals offering a year after launch.
It's a visual metaphor!
Two of the bigger players in the market dropping out or reducing their activities might seem like good news for Groupon, the site entirely focused on deals, but according to Experian Hitwise they have suffered a 50% drop in web traffic since July of this year. The figures might not be entirely accurate but it certainly doesn’t seem like a good omen. A drastic drop in traffic is the last thing the company needed following the criticism they received during their IPO in January for being an unprofitable company.
However, the news is not all doom and gloom for those who are still attempting to break into the daily deals market. Groupon’s closest rival, Living Social, had a 27% growth in traffic over the same period. If this trend were to continue LS would overtake Groupon, in terms of traffic, by the end of the year.
The area is definitely heavily populated and doesn’t look set to continue as it has done in its current form. The key then for Groupon, and everyone else, is to hit upon the next successful incarnation, whatever that may be.
Tags:daily deals, Facebook Deals, Groupon, Living Social, Yelp
