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Groupon & Mobile

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Introducing Groupon Now! Groupon Now. Groupon has just launched Groupon Now, the company's much-anticipated time-based deals app that wants to redefine how society eats and shops.

Groupon Now

Groupon Now, which was first revealed in March, is a simple application within Groupon's mobile apps that gives a user the ability to find local deals in realtime. This is accomplished by mapping a list of time-specific daily deals in the user's vicinity. These daily deals can last anywhere from a few hours to a full day, depending on when and how long a business wants to run a deal. The goal of Groupon Now is to give businesses the opportunity to bring in new customers during slow periods of business. If a restaurant knows that it gets weak business on Wednesday afternoons, it can set up a daily deal for that time frame.

Unfortunately, Groupon Now is only available in Chicago (the location of Groupon's headquarters) for now, but we bet it won't be long until it rolls out to other cities around the world. What do you think of Groupon Now? Groupon Sees Half of All Sales Coming From Mobile in Two Years. Mobile, along with social and local, will be one of the largest drivers for Groupon’s deals business over the next few years.

Groupon Sees Half of All Sales Coming From Mobile in Two Years

Groupon VP Mobile Partnerships Michael Shim said: “Mobile is huge for Groupon…I believe we could see us doing 50 percent of deals sold/purchased in the next couple of years.” Shim made the statements this morning at Mobile Northwest, an all-day event in Seattle sponsored by Miller Nash, where a good portion of the day’s discussions are focused on the intersection of mobile and commerce and payments. The opening morning keynote was delivered by K.C. MacLaren, Starbucks’ director of mobile and emerging platforms. MacLaren said the coffee retailer is the largest mobile payments company, with 8,000 outlets. MacLaren said so far usage of the application has exceeded expectations, with millions of users. Right now the application isn’t about incremental revenue, he said, but about driving loyalty.

Foursquare and Groupon Planning Distribution Deal – AllThingsD. Daily deals leader Groupon and social location innovator Foursquare are in partnership talks, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Foursquare and Groupon Planning Distribution Deal – AllThingsD

The arrangement is likely to see Groupon deals targeted to Foursquare users’ check-ins. Mobile app users who tell their friends that they’re in the vicinity of a venue offering a discount are obviously prime customers. Social distribution could help Groupon move beyond email lists to a more precise and targeted audience. And Foursquare wouldn’t mind the revenue it would get from these leads. Such a deal is not without precedent. Loopt counts five million users, while Foursquare has nine million. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason visited Foursquare’s New York office last week, and it wasn’t the first time he’d stopped by recently, said sources.

Groupon spokeswoman Julie Mossler’s statement on a potential Foursquare partnership was the following: “We see a lot of potential for Groupon Now! Should Groupon Acquire Foursquare? Social juggernauts Groupon and Foursquare are reportedly in talks to integrate Groupon's wildly popular daily deals service with Foursquare checkins.

Should Groupon Acquire Foursquare?

Would both companies be better as one entity? Groupon is best known for the daily deals it delivers via email. Those simple discounts have helped Groupon reach millions of businesses and made them a multi-billion-dollar company. In March, Groupon declared that mobile is the deals service's future. And earlier this month, the company launched Groupon Now, a time-based mobile app that helps users find local deals based on their location. Groupon Now is so vital to the company that internally it's known as Groupon 2.0. This wouldn't be the first time Groupon integrated with a geosocial app. Groupon wants to make a major move into mobile with Groupon Now, but the service may find it difficult to get its users to switch from email to mobile.

Groupon has an astounding 85 million users, most of whom come from email. The economics are feasible, too.