Facebook Takes On Groupon With Deals

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Starting today Facebook has finally launched Deals, a feature that is set to compete with Groupon, in five cities. So far the chosen cities are Austin, Dallas, Atlanta, San Diego and San Francisco. Much like Groupon users, Deals users will receive articles via email along with Deals that will be offered in users' news feeds.

As on right now, anyone can sign up for Deals notifications on the feature's landing page. It is only those users in the five test cities, however, that will be able to see and use Deals at this moment.

Here is where I chime in and offer a little plea: Please, oh please, Facebook, be a little different than Groupon (and by different I mean significantly less annoying). I was once a Groupon user. It wasn't that long ago. I got all excited with the talk of discounts and deals that I just had to be a part. I signed up for a Groupon account as eager as can be and awaited the rolling in of useful savings. Let's just say I waited until the very day that I cancelled my subscription.

Groupon woke me up every morning with deals of nothingness. For the first few mornings I thought maybe it was ...
... just a fluke. Perhaps the deals that were being offered would be loved by someone else; they just weren't my cup of tea. It didn't take too long for me to realize that none, not a single one, of the deals that were offered had my name on it. I couldn't have possibly been the only one.

Groupon deals seemed useless and far-fetched. I'm hoping that Facebook can step in and do things differently. Here's a suggestion, Facebook—if you're out there reading. Do user research. Find out what tends to be trending patterns in user likes and dislikes. No doubt in my mind that your platform is sophisticated enough to access this type of information. Figure out what it is that users like and offer that.

If you see that I'm a lover of fine wine and football (as stated perhaps, in recent status updates), offer me 50% off on a bottle (or several) of white wine, accompanied by tickets to Sunday's big game. I'd appreciate you for that, really. Don't offer me 75% off of kayaking if I stated last week that I hate the water. That would be mighty inconsiderate of you.

It doesn't seem like customizing deals is a part of the new Deals platform as of yet. Facebook is approaching Deals as a medium that offers deals with socializing as the primary concern-figures, with Facebook being a social network and all. A user buys a deal, clicks the like button and the deal is recommended to others and appears in friends' news feed.

I guess this is semi-cool but it pales in comparison to the deal customizing feature that I mentioned. I'm sure that deal customizing will pop-up sooner or later and I would simply like due credit when it does. You heard it here first, folks. If you notice any platform presenting offer customization, be sure to let me know. Deal?