Google plans Groupon competitor: Google Offers

Posted on 21 Jan 2011 at 10:22

Google is looking to replicate the success of group-buying site Groupon, following its failure to buy the company outright, with a competing service: Google Offers.

First revealed by a fact sheet for participating businesses leaked to Mashable, and later confirmed by Google itself, Google Offers takes Groupon's concept of the power of bulk buying under the Google umbrella.

For those unfamiliar with Groupon's approach, which has been successful enough for the company's founders to reject a $6 billion offer from Google in favour of a planned public offering expected to value the company at $15 billion, the service allows companies to offer discounts and offers providing a certain number of people agree to participate.

A recent example from the US version of the site was Amazon offering to sell $20 gift certificates for $10, providing it received a minimum number of orders - a deal that saw the company sell more than a million gift certificates.

While Google has confirmed that it is testing something called Google Offers, its statement falls short of confirming that the service is close to launch. Following the leak, the company claimed that it is "communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways."

Author: Gareth Halfacree

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