- Valpak, the company that sends those blue envelopes full of coupons that you either love or completely ignore, has launched their own daily deal site, Valpak Deals. In an interesting move, the site will initially launch not in large cities, but rather scattershot across the Northeast and Midwest. Long Island, New Haven, and Omaha will be the initial markets. [Inc.]
- LivingSocial announced plans yesterday to launch in 25 additional markets in the US, Canada, and the UK. This will bring the web’s second largest daily deal purveyor to 89 total markets, which still falls way behind Groupon’s reach of 230. Many of the new launches will be occurring in second and third tier markets (Grand Rapids, Greenville, El Paso), as well as smaller cities and regions within larger metro areas (Wilmington, DE, Mississauga, ON, and Hudson County, NJ). [MSNBC]
- New York based Village Vines plans to launch this week in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and D.C. Not only will the popular dining discount site offer users considerable deals at some of these cities’ best restaurants, but first time users who book a reservation will get their first promotion for free. Adds co-founder Benjamin McKean, “We want to be an alternative to OpenTable.” [Chicago Tribune]
- Zagat Exclusives and Yelp expanded to the New York market. [Mashable][TheNextWeb]
- Our industry is so mature, it even has its own Rap Video. [What'sTheDeal]
- Careful with Groupon: business and consumers speak out on group buying risks. Groupon responds. [Posies][TechCrunch]
Heard anything else interesting? Comment below or call us out on Twitter:@yipit. Otherwise, we’ll get back to building Yipit, which gathers and filters daily deals based on your tastes. Photocredit mocr.