
Facebook Deals: Better with Friends - kacy
https://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150159110592131
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tmugavero
I'm surprised New York isn't in the launch cities. The sheer density of
people, businesses, and overpriced things requiring deals makes it a no
brainer. Two cities in TX? I'd understand Austin over Dallas though (I'm from
Dallas living in NY).

Facebook is also continuing its tradition of copying other people. They are
the 1000th entrant into deals, so the only hope they have of success is their
huge captive audience. Even that isn't doing well for them in the location
game.

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TravisLS
I don't really fault them for copying other people. That's a pretty decent
strategy for the market leader to take.

Deals is a fantastic way to monetize their competitive advantage (the massive
database of social profiles and friendship connections). I'd prefer they
implement all the creative ideas they can to keep Facebook usable and
valuable, rather than suffocating the experience with ads.

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dr_
I still feel that some things people prefer to keep private. If I bought
something at a discounted price I personally don't care to share that with
everyone who I am connected to on Facebook, maybe just a few close friends and
family members that's it, and that I do by emailing them.

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spontaneus
Anyone know what Facebook's commission cut is compared to Groupon & Living
Social?

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patton01
I do know that they were in talks with shoplocal.com about using their api
pass on deals to users. That company does alot of work in that space already.
I know they developed the facebook pages for walmart, jcpenny, and gnc. It's a
logical step for facebook to use their api.

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vipivip
Better with friends but not always, some purchases better be private.

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gyardley
Very interesting list of partners - some decently-sized deal sites but no
Groupon or Living Social, the two behemoths in the space.

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barkingcat
It's supposed to be the competitor to Groupon and Living Social, so of course
they wouldn't be partnering with those companies!!

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gyardley
Is it really? Or is it a combination of direct deal-sourcing and aggregator?

After all, they're working with aDealio, Gilt City, HomeRun, kgb deals,
OpenTable, Plum District, PopSugar City, ReachLocal, Tippr, viagogo, and zozi,
and those companies are either primarily or substantially in the same business
as Groupon and Living Social.

Unless Facebook decides to hire thousands of additional sales employees,
located in every major market, in order to support the deals channel (which is
a possibility, I suppose), they're going to need to get their deals from
somewhere else.

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yalogin
Should facebook really hire thousands of sales people? Its already very well
known. If they can show some good ROI for the initial customers should go to
them to push deals. In fact most savvy businesses have a facebook page and so
facebook can automatically poke them about pushing deals.

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gyardley
Everything I've learned about the daily deal industry over the last few months
tells me local merchants have to be _sold_ on daily deals - they don't just
sign-up through a self-serve form. (Groupon's self-serve Groupon Stores, for
example, seems to be flopping.)

Facebook might be able to change this. Who knows? Just because it's Facebook
doesn't mean its new product lines are automatically successful.

