Groupon rumored to partner with Foursquare for targeted daily deals

By Andrew Couts May 23, 2011

Daily deals giant Groupon is purportedly in talks to partner with location sharing service Foursquare, reports All Things Digital. If approved, the partnership would likely result in more precisely targeted deal suggestions, based upon where users of check in.

The move would help Groupon expand away from email lists as their primary way of communicating deals with users. Yes, Groupon does have its own app for iOS, Android and BlackBerry, and can be accessed via the mobile web, but these outlets remain relatively lightly traveled compared to the email route.

A deal with Foursquare isn’t the only of its kind, however. Just last week, Foursquare competitor Loopt announced. Like the rumored Foursquare deal, that partnership is an expansion of company’s new Groupon Now service, which delivers real-time offers to its users. For the time being, however, Groupon Now is only available for users in Chicago. It is not yet known how soon the Loopt deal will expand to other locations, if at all.

The Foursquare deal currently remains in the “still unconfirmed” category. But a variety of reported details point to an imminent partnership. According to All Things D‘s sources, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason has visited Foursquare’s New York offices multiple times. And a statement release by Groupon spokeswoman Julie Mossler has a certain wink-wink feel to it.

“We see a lot of potential for Groupon Now! to be showcased via services like Loopt,” Mossler told All Things D. “No bigger picture to announce yet, but stay tuned for additional collaborations.”

Foursquare currently has about 9 million users, compared to Loopt’s user base of five million, so neither service would provide access to a particularly massive number of people. That said, we can certainly see the benefit of finding out that a particular nearby restaurant has a good deal on lunch.

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Social Media

LivingSocial pairs real-time discounts with room service and delivery options

room service

LivingSocial continues to breathe down Groupon’s neck as it paves its own way through the daily deals business. While the coupon curator definitely takes cues from Groupon’s success and mistakes, it’s also injecting its own flavor into new site features, including its new Instant service.
LivingSocial Instant is the site’s take on Groupon Now, which gives Groupon users real-time deals based on their location that you can buy and redeem on the go—and better yet, which give automatically reimburse you if you aren’t able to use them within the allotted time period.
But Instant has some new features that differentiate it from Groupon Now. Instead of making immediate plans to eat somewhere based on your location, Instant lets you order meals from a restaurant offering a discount so your meal will be ready right when you arrive to take home. There’s also an option for delivery as well as dine-in specials.
Part of the delivery feature is Room Service, an option to inject a little high class in your experience. Basically, Room Service brings not only the food but the restaurant to you, with table, glassware, and top-notch presentation and food to boot. It will be available on Thursday and Friday nights.
At the moment, these features are only up and running in the Washington, D.C. area, home to LivingSocial headquarters.
While Groupon seems to have clung to its bargain bin roots (perhaps with the exception of some of its Groupon Getaways), LivingSocial appears to be taking a note out of Gilt Groupe’s book. The site hasn’t gone full scale upper crust, but it’s clearly trying to embrace the idea of enjoying the finer things in life, and a good part of its Instant service is tailored to this. And dining has been one of the most popular discount items for daily deals sites, so this could easily be a popular feature for for the site.
No word on when the ritzy services are heading to you—we’ll keep you posted.

Social Media

Poorsquare brings Foursquare deals to the masses

Location is one of social networking’s hottest trends. It’s been redefining how we use the Internet, putting digital platforms to tangible, real-world use. But let’s face it, location-based services exactly known for saving you money. The entire Foursquare scheme is to elevate customer loyalty, getting users to frequent locations and giving businesses a reason to partner with the site on deals. At its core, it’s a cycle that largely gets users to spend more money.
The likes of Groupon, Yelp, and AirBnb are no different: They all wrap location around e-commerce. It’s not just about where you are — it’s about what you’re going to buy there. So something like Poorsquare was inevitable.
Poorsquare is little more than a Foursquare hack that was created at the Reinventing Local hackathon by Andrew Pinzler and Jeff Novich. Basically, the application is a Foursquare-powered search engine that rifles through the network to find seriously discounted items and freebies in your neighborhood (that is, if your neighborhood is located in New York—the site says 100 new cities are on the way).
You can search Poorsquare by location, type of discount, how many check-ins are required, and if you need to bring friends. If you find yourself alone in Astoria New York, Poorsquare tells us you can get a free small fry at Burger King as well as a free shot at Tantra Lounge in exchange for nothing more than your first-time check-ins.

Social Media

Groupon sues two former employees who left for Google Offers

Groupon has sued two former employees who last month joined one of its direct competitors, according to papers filed in an Illinois court on Monday. Groupon claims the pair took with them confidential information belonging to the company.
Bloomberg reports that Michael Nolan, who was at Groupon for two years, and Brian Hanna, who started working there at the beginning of this year, left the daily deals company in September for positions with Google Offers. The pair worked as sales managers for Groupon.
The daily deals company also claims that they have breached an agreement whereby they wouldn’t work for a direct competitor for the next two years.
The filing says that “in their new positions with Google Offers and/or Google, Hanna and Nolan will provide the same or similar services as they provided at Groupon,” which means they’ll have to “employ confidential and proprietary information that they learned while employed at Groupon.”
Groupon is attempting to get a court order to prevent Hanna and Nolan from disclosing any confidential information which belongs to the company.
The news comes on the same day that Groupon’s IPO roadshow kicks off in an effort to generate investor interest in its stock. The Chicago-based company hopes to sell 30 million shares for between $16 and $18 in an effort to raise as much as $540 million. This would value Groupon at $11.4 billion. Late last year, Google offered to buy Groupon for $6 billion but the bid was rejected. Less than six months later, Google launched its own daily deals service, Google Offers.
The daily deals business has boomed since Groupon launched in 2008, and has already reached saturation point. Many competing companies have fallen by the wayside in recent months, while Google Offers continues to expand. It currently offers daily deals in more than 12 US cities, with launches for 25 more cities planned for the near future.
While Google Offers may not be as big as Groupon just yet, the original daily deals company is nevertheless keen to keep ahead of the game and ensure that none of its former employees share any information relating to its business practises, although it may, of course, be too late.