Facebook Deals Shuttered; Check-In Deals To Continue

By the Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook is ending its Deals program, which offered the site's 750 million users discounts similar to those offered by daily deals site Groupon.

Facebook said in a statement Friday it decided to end Deals after four months of testing. The service will wind down in coming weeks. It was available only in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco.

Facebook says it remains committed to serving local businesses through ads, pages and other products. And it will continue to offer "check-in deals." These lets businesses like restaurants and stores offer deals to customers who "check in" through Facebook to let their friends know where they are.

Comments

[Lisa Dong]

08:24 AM on 09/22/2011

Sorry to know that Facebook is closing its group buying program.

But still we know group buying is very hot! Before even Facebook launched their group buying program, but not anyone has a chance to post their deal there! So Anyone, who's interested with Facebook Deal or GroupBuying. I suggest you can check out, http://www.groupbuyingapps.com/. It's a instantly-installed group buying application, we specially developed for Facebook.

The purpose for us to develop this app is to help the ones who want to start groupbuying business adventure with minim cost, INSTANTLY, and market your products to as many leads as possible in a simple way. Here’s app intro video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljziUe90c2c

With this app, you can start to sell a deal on Facebook within 3 mins, collect payment through PayPal and Facebook credits, you can share your deals to 300+ social networks, and your clients can click "Invite" button to invite all their friends to enjoy the deals. Admin area is also easy to control, and you can check all the purchasers' data at admin. Its features are perfect for you to quickly sell products to huge fans!

In conclusion, it's very new, so not too much people knew about it, but we are sure, with this app, it shall help your business a lot, specially for Christmas selling season!

[Hunter Robbins]

12:58 PM on 08/30/2011

The problem with Yelp and FB isn't that they jumped into the game late, it's that they had terrible strategic planning (if any). As a small business owner, I can tell you my experience with both. FB was only interested in working with large companies such as sports teams or companies within a specific revenue level.

LivingSocial and Groupon are very much like FB; they are only interested in working with businesses that offer certain activities and have a specific revenue level. They're not going to help you actually grow your business, even if it brings in money for them. This is short sighted because it limits their earning potential.

Yelp is the worst of the lot. First, they use "print" media type of pricing charts, rather than flexible bid rates like on FB. Their Deals Program wanted far too much percentage profit for deals than businesses were willing to spend. Asking for 30 percent revenue for posting a deal was laughable.

The other problem with Yelp is that you are beginning to see how businesses absolutely loathe Yelp. It's not because of bad reviews being posted, it's because they filter positive reviews unless you're paying for advertising. (Look for info on the class-action litigation pending against Yelp.)

Ultimately, the reason these programs failed is due to lack of support staff, strategic planning and too much greed for the services offered. Asking for more than 10-15 percent of the "Deal" is just silly in my opinion.

[JustinP213]

05:16 PM on 08/29/2011

oh well

[Jack Daniels Esq]

03:11 AM on 08/29/2011

Maybe its only moi, but that picture does look soooooooooo gay

[JustinP213]

05:16 PM on 08/29/2011

It's you.

[Bud Budha]

11:47 PM on 08/28/2011

I think Im the only American not on facebook. Believe it or not I don't think im missing out on anything. I need my google though!

[jukesgrrl]

01:17 AM on 08/29/2011

No, you're not alone. I had my privacy invaded enough by Bush/Cheney.

[nightfly71]

04:12 PM on 08/29/2011

Obama is doing the exact same thing. You do know that, right? Administration attorneys argued in federal court that cell phone users have no expectation of privacy from gov't eavesdropping. It's not a Bush/Cheney thing, it's a big government thing. A popular song by The Who comes to mind...

[Quai DOrsay]

10:15 AM on 09/02/2011

Nope, you are def not alone

[chefbob50]

10:33 PM on 08/28/2011

If I'm out to dinner the last thing I want to do is spend the meal texting call me old fashioned but whatever happened to talking to your dinning partner...

[voagirl]

09:31 PM on 08/28/2011

Can someone tell me why it is that if I follow a person or business on FB soley for informational purposes my activity turns up on someone else's "wall?" Creepy.

[Cameron Hodge]

07:38 PM on 08/28/2011

I like to click on the FB stories just to see the comment section ironically flooded with people who need to "update" the commuinty on their "status" as Facebook non-users.

Philistines will always cop a "hey you kids, in my day..." attitude to new things. Its just a tool for communication that can be used wisely or idiotically like any other. It just does a lot more data mining than most lol.

[PoliticallyAffiliated]

06:36 PM on 08/28/2011

Facebook and its new ticker is what needs to be talked about, not to mention its horrible chatting feature!

[Womanvoter4Obama]

08:37 PM on 08/28/2011

Thank you! Both are driving me crazy.

[joannie iv]

05:54 PM on 08/28/2011

Love my friends none of us are on Facebook would rather chat on the phone or go see them and socialise that way so anything to do with facebook is such a big yawn.

[J0E1]

09:16 PM on 08/28/2011

Have you ever heard of a comma?   Maybe you should ask your friends over the phone how to piece together a coherent sentence.

[Emy Freeland]

10:59 PM on 08/28/2011

Agreed!! Do they diagram sentences anymore?

[Goodthink2012]

11:03 PM on 08/28/2011

Let he who is a perfect punctuator cast the first snarky remark.

[keepareaclean]

04:18 PM on 08/28/2011

on the other hand, they introduced that stupid new 'ticker'

[Ded Peasant]

03:42 PM on 08/28/2011

people on fb don't need coupons. they don't shop, they donut leave their houses.

[donitacurioso]

04:46 PM on 08/28/2011

I'd leave my house for a donut.

[tweedy54]

08:22 PM on 08/28/2011

lol..

[Ded Peasant]

03:40 PM on 08/28/2011

Nopoopons on fb, why oh why...

[Mdinn30]

03:11 PM on 08/28/2011

What??? and who cares

[manelady]

02:29 PM on 08/28/2011

Critics of FB are taking things way too seriously. It is just another facet of communication. Personally, I have reconnected with long lost school friends; chat with newly connected interesting friends, remark in one or two lines to situations in my family's lives, have a few laughs. As long as you keep your very personal info to yourself, there is no harm. And, yes, I have loads of "real" friends. Some of whom are on FB.

[hypnotoad72]

04:58 PM on 08/28/2011

One can keep one's own things to one's own self, but what if others make comments that infer to or directly incorporate your name?

You're innocent, certainly, but will the HR department that uses Facebook to decide if one's Facebook status makes them "employable" or not?  (One needn't use FB either for names to get bandied around...)

[jlglaze]

08:05 PM on 08/28/2011

It's the same as any blog. Most people had rather say things when people can't see them or hear them, just like this one!