These are local sites for local people
For the past couple of years the hot property online as been social networking services, notably Facebook and Twitter. But it looks like we might be finally moving on from this compulsion share our every thought and action with the world, and onto sharing local money-saving opportunities.
This appears to be the model offered by the likes of Groupon, which Google is extensively rumoured to be bidding $6 billion to acquire. If you're not familiar with it - it's a pretty straightforward service that simply email subscribers a ‘deal of the day' for the customer's selected location. It's not obvious why this sort of thing, which has been technologically possible for years, is suddently such a big deal, but it is.
Not only is Groupon actually making money - often not the case with the ‘next big thing' online - but other companies also operating in this market are now having money thrown at them by competing web giants understandably anxious about Google moving in on their turf.
As you would expect, the two companies most threatened by Google's renewed focus on e-commerce are Amazon and eBay. The latter announced yesterday that it has acquired Milo - which provides real-time stock and pricing information from local ‘bricks and mortar' retailers.
"Since eBay is an online marketplace and doesn't compete with brick-and-mortar stores, adding local store inventory to the eBay marketplace is a natural extension of what we've been doing for 15 years - bringing buyers and sellers together to access the largest selection available anywhere," said Mark Carges, eBay CTO.
Then came the announcement that Amazon is investing $175 million in LivingSocial, which seems to offer pretty much the same service as Groupon. Presumably Amazon could have bid to acquire the whole company, so this looks like a defensive move to ensure healthy competition with Groupon/Google. LivingSocial is already bringing in a million dollars per day.
"To be the biggest player in the local commerce space there is no one better to work with than Amazon," said Tim O'Shaughnessy, CEO of LivingSocial. "As the social shopping space continues to heat up, LivingSocial is committed to staying focused on providing the high level of quality that consumers and merchants have come to expect when working with us."
Note the use of the term ‘social shopping'. This is what appears to be contemporary about these services. Presumably news of local offers is spread virally via email and social networks, which is what makes this so much more effective than a simple direct marketing service. How these services compete with or complement things like Foursquare and Facebook Places remains to be seen.
All this ‘local' talk made us think of The League Of Gentlemen, so here's a ‘local' clip to help get you through a frosty Friday. You can also watch them in full from BBC Worldwide (ad-funded) on YouTube, but they won't let us embed them.
