Friday, January 21, 2011

Google to Launch Groupon Competitor

Google is preparing to launch "Google Offers", the search giant’s Groupon competitor.

Google Offers apparently looks and operates much like Groupon or LivingSocial. Users receive an e-mail with a local deal of the day. They then have the opportunity to buy that deal within a specific time limit. Once enough people have made the purchase, the Google Offer is triggered.

One might still wonder whether Google might yet consider buying a Groupon-like company that already has momentum in the market. One might argue about whether Google "has to," or "should" do so. What is not contestable is that Google believes social buying and "offers" capability is important to its overall moves into mobile applications and revenue models.

The simple reason is that social buying (offers) is intrinsically related to local advertising and mobile advertising. And those businesses are significant growth areas for Google. Also, such mobile offers increasingly will be related to transactions, buying and paying. And Google believes "mobile money" is one of its top-three objectives.

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