LivingSocial receives $175 million investment by Amazon.com

December 3, 2010 By Laura Khalil

LivingSocial has secured a $175 million investment from Amazon.

LivingSocial will use this investment to continue its momentum of worldwide launches and overall business growth while continuing to serve deals to more than 10 million current subscribers.

LivingSocial’s rapid expansion has the company currently booking revenues of more than $1 million a day on average and is projected to book well over $500 million in revenue in 2011.

“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.”

LivingSocial lets anyone receive coupons for local restaurants, shops, activities and services in their area. The company has dedicated area experts on the ground in every location working directly with business owners, and researching the best local adventures to bring a savings of 50% to 70% for consumers.

Recently, LivingSocial expanded its business by acquiring adventure company Urban Escapes, a site which offers outdoor excursions.

The daily deals space is increasingly crowded, with at least a dozen competitors vying for attention by consumers through daily emails every morning. The leader in the space, Groupon, is the one to beat and is rumored to be in acquisition talks with Google, reportedly for $6 billion.

If the Groupon/Google acquisition does go through that would significantly change the playing field for its largest competitor, LivingSocial. Currently both companies spend roughly $1 million a month in online advertising, a fee which would likely be waived if Groupon joined Google.

Showing 2 comments

Jim Remington at 3:44pm 12th December 2010 You should also write about the risks in this coupon business. For example, Living Social ran a couple of deals with a teeth whitening company that called itself Beaming White USA, but which had no affiliation with the Beaming White trademark owner, which is Beaming White, LLC. Now Beaming White, LLC is going after Living Social for payment of the revenues generated by the deals they ran. Of course, the Beaming White USA people probably won't indemnify Living Social, leaving them holding the bag, plus the bad reputation they will get when people can’t redeem the coupons they paid for. These companies need to do better due diligence as to trademark ownership when it comes to selling products and services from other companies.
megamelfina at 4:11pm 4th December 2010 LivingSocial and other daily deal sites can be a great way to save on all kinds of different purchases, and they also offer businesses a way to expand their consumer base and advertising their products. It's great to see them expanding across the nation and getting investments so they can expand. A great way to find all these great discounts in one place is by visiting http://www.dailydealpool.com. This site will email you daily with a list of the best sales and deals in your area, saving consumers from having to search all the savings websites.