Google Can’t Acquire, Launches Groupon Competitor
After Groupon rejected Google’s $6 billion bid, the search giant is taking a new approach to get into the discounts market. A “confidential fact sheet” from Google sent to Mashable revealed some information about Google Offers, an email-subscription based buy-in discount service in the making.
“According to its sources, businesses will get 80 percent of revenue derived from the coupon three days after a deal runs. Google will send the rest in 60 days, after processing any returns.”
The Google Offers concept appears to be identical to Groupon. In the rest of fact sheet Google also reports it’s already communicating and cooperating with unnamed small businesses for a test of its pre-paid offers and vouchers program. Google is reacting to its $6 billion worth turndown from Groupon, which is not surprising considering its eagerness to expand into the daily deals industry, and the fact Google has a tendency to launch its own products. This tendency is exactly what will add Google Offers by default to a long list of Groupon clones.
Earlier updates from Google’s increasing eagerness to jump aboard the coupon bandwagon included, of course, its (probably paused) pursuit of Groupon-alternatives available for buying. This news comes after Groupon raised $500 million of its $950 million target funding in the round that followed its decline of Google’s $6 billion bid.
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