LivingSocial, Groupon Make Europe Another Battlefront
Deals players set for French clash after LivingSocial's new acquisition.
The battle for daily deals supremacy has become more than an American shootout for top players LivingSocial and Groupon. In the past year both companies have homed in on the European market, with LivingSocial’s purchase of French deals site Dealissime.com being the latest example.
The Washington, DC-based company said it picked up 250,000 subscribers from the one-year-old Dealissime in an undisclosed financial agreement. In terms of what happens to the French brand, Maire Griffin, LivingSocial spokesperson, told ClickZ News, “At this point, it will remain Dealissime and there is additional branding that notes Dealissime is a LivingSocial company.”
LivingSocial announced the move on Wednesday, making France the 13th country in which it operates. On the European front, it also does business in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Portugal.
During spring 2010, Groupon entered Europe by acquiring CityDeals. The Chicago-based firm went from operating in two countries (the U.S. and Canada) to 18, including France, Germany, the U.K., Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden. The purchase also brought Groupon to Turkey.
The CityDeals acquisition seems to have paid off for Groupon, which may be a tough brand to beat in France. Jake Maas, LivingSocial’s SVP of business development, expressed optimism that the market can accommodate two companies while speaking with AllThingsD.
“Groupon is doing really well there,” Maas told the publication. “It’s a big market for them, and there hasn’t been a strong No. 2 player emerging in France.”
LivingSocial also formally announced today that it purchased online marketing firm SocialMedia.com in April. Griffin of LivingSocial said SocialMedia.com ran a series of deals subscriber acquisition initiatives for her company last year.
“Based on the success of these campaigns, SocialMedia.com developed advanced functionality and deeper integration with LivingSocial,” the spokesperson said. “SocialMedia’s nine-person team will continue to focus on user acquisition, enhance current products via deeper data integration and develop new products for use across ad spend and partnerships with key publishers.”
Meanwhile, LivingSocial and Groupon may eventually have to combat Google on the daily deals landscape. The Mountain View, CA-based online giant officially launched its platform, Google Offers, today in Portland, OR.
