zp945 wrote >>
I can think of at least three sites not listed off the top of my head. I'm a little amazed at how quickly this trend has grown. Within two years we've gone from zero to nearly twenty. I just don't see it as a model that's going to be around that much longer. A few of the stronger (Groupon) sites may hang on, but there are only so many deals a business can offer.
As with most of these disruptive online business models with a twist, I've seen power laws kick in and in most cases one to two entities end up dominating the broader market.
That said, there are always niche opportunities.
There will probably never be another eBay that captures the broader market anytime soon, but there's plenty of room for more online niche marketplaces like etsy, which have similar attributes to eBay.
I think the same holds true for the daily deals space.
You will see it go niche.
The model could be awesome for organizations like the SNBA who already have their list built and don't do anything with it except send event announcements.
Using something like the Wroupon theme or this one, which is more polished - Group Buying Site they could offer this service to their membership in a way where businesses don't lose their ass, and generate some more revenue on their end.
Getting back to the daily deal attack on the broader market, yeah I agree that will be tough to sustain 4 or 5 entities.
The biggest barrier to entry in the space is customer acquisition and some saturation to a degree. Groupon already has a well developed marketing and sales funnel. Seeing as they're well capitalized (raised 180 million) and they're funding the business through cash flow, I don't see them going anywhere.
For other startups in the space it will be tough. The startup has to be well capitalized to go through the process of building their marketing and sales funnels, which is a constant series of experiments and errors. It's expensive.
If the startups can build a list (email list) that is smarter, more segmented and more targeted that still addresses the broader market then I see an opening because this is where Groupon fails. Otherwise, yeah, they're all mostly just clones and it's a race to build the list at the lowest cost and Groupon has already won round one of that race.
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