Living Social and Groupon. The 16 Interesting Fact on Their Similarity and Differences!

December 13th, 2010

Fire

So you want to know more of the living truth about these two company, Living Social and Groupon. We at 24SevenPost have come out with a list of interesting comparison between both of the giant in the ‘group coupon’ industry. Want to find out more, keep on reading the detail below.

How Does It Work?
How does Groupon or Living Social work? “It’s very simple: You’d sign up for Groupon or Living Social, and every morning you get an e-mail that features a great local business e.g it could be a restaurant, theater, sporting event, spa, haircut or anything else. And they are offering some great deal of discounted voucher – 50 percent off, 60, 70 percent off or more.

Similarity Between Living Social and Groupon

1. Both Living Social and Groupon are coupon based company.

2. Both Living Social and Groupon are trying to make it easier for people to save money by making it easy to share and earn coupons with friends.

3. Both Living Social and Groupon have raised funding in the last couple of months.

4. Both Living Social and Groupon are busy expanding to new cities.

5. Both Living Social and Groupon making good use of social features.

6. Both Living Social and Groupon offer only one deal per day.

7. Both Living Social and Groupon have similar website and comparable average deal prices. (Living Social Website, Groupon Website)

8. Both Living Social and Groupon also offer buy the deal and share it (if three of your friends buy the deal, you get one free), if enough people opt for the deal it makes and you redeem your coupon for the discount.

9. Both Living Social and Groupon’s websites use Facebook Connect to help people find deals according to the geography, then share these deals on Facebook or other social media.

Differences Between Living VS Groupon

1. Groupon is based in Chicago and founded in Nov 2008 as ‘group coupon’ company VS Living Social is based in Washington DC and founded in 2007 as social discovery and cataloging network company.

2. Groupon has 40 million subscriber in 35 countries and 335 cities VS Living Social has 10 million members in 5 countries and 89 cities.

3. Groupon turn down $3 billion offer from Yahoo & $6 billion offer from Google VS Living Social only just get the $175 million investment from Amazon.

4. Groupon get 79% of US traffic VS Living Social get only 8% of US traffic

5. Groupon’s investor are New Enterprise Associates. Eric Lefkofsky, Brad Keywell & Digital Sky Technologies VS Living Social are AOL founder Steve Case, U.S. Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners & Amazon.

6. Groupon is the pioneer VS Living Social is a clone.

7. Groupon is earning 3 times more than Living Social is making.

If you have more to say, please put it in the comment box. We will try to include it.

Posted in World News

Tags: coupon, Groupon, living social

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7 Responses to “Living Social and Groupon. The 16 Interesting Fact on Their Similarity and Differences!”

Paul Bailey says:

January 24, 2011 at 1:34 am

We really wanted to know “What time is it?” and you told us how to build a watch! Instead of learning about corporate structure, earnings and investors, people like me really want to know “Do these coupon companies work or are they a total scam?” and “IF they work – how do they make their money – because not everybody who buys the coupons uses them?”
Christine says:

January 26, 2011 at 4:19 am

Paul: These coupon companies do work and are not scams. They make their money of the sale of the coupons and split it with the merchant. For example if you buy a $100 restaurant gift certificate for $50; Groupon, et al receives $25 and the restaurant that is offering the coupon gets $25. The hope for the restaurant is that you will come in and spend more than the $50, which is why one of the restrictions tends to be ‘doesn’t include alcohol’, so they can upsell you. In my opinion, it’s almost in the merchants interest NOT to have the coupon redeemed, because they get that $25 per coupon, whether or not you use it.
Christina says:

March 3, 2011 at 4:16 am

You can print off your voucher/coupon multiple times, and it is up to you to say that you’ve used the coupon on your login. How does the company know that you’ve used it? Can’t you just go and use the coupon again and again? Many businesses seem to just take the paper. Does Groupon/Living Social send them the list of voucher numbers?
Peter Marshment says:

March 23, 2011 at 12:28 am

Both Companies send a list of purchasers along with the unique voucher code numbers.
It is up to the businesses to cross them off a list when they use the voucher.

The difference between the two is that Living Social pay ALL the money to the business no matter how many people redeem the voucher
Groupon only sends the business the money once they have received a coupon and sent it off to them

Apparently Groupon make a huge profit from people not redeeming these vouchers because they keep all of it. No refund to the purchaser and no money passed to the business. this element of Groupon is a Bit of a con i must say!!
Jim P in CA says:

March 29, 2011 at 2:41 pm

Can someone tell me how purchasing a coupon is different than purchasing a gift certificate at a discount? I ask because gift certificates have all kinds of state regulations regarding expirations, eschew laws for non redemption, limits on fees, etc. From my limited vantage point, it seems these multi-billion dollar coupon business models are based on legal semantics… and only a state statue away from collapse – or at least a significant modification to their revenue model.
Organo Gold says:

April 23, 2011 at 3:39 am

What a good post! I’d love more information.Thanks a lot!
Marilyn Dufresne says:

March 4, 2012 at 6:31 am

I just got a deal from living social and thought it was neat, but I will not be buying from living social again since you are an advertiser on WTAG which hosts the rush limbaugh show. I am pretty sure you are aware of his most recent intolerant
Remarks.