In the last two weeks, more publishers popped onto the scene, LivingSocial made an acquisition, and we got some publicity on CNN! Here’s your Friday Roundup:
- Cox Media Group launched their Daily Deal product, DealSwarm, this past Tuesday. DealSwarm will act as both an independent Daily Deal service and as a white label product to be run on various news media sites owned by Cox. While critics contend that Cox is entering the space too late, the media group is banking on the established relationships between local advertisers and consumers to make the service work. [Gigaom]
- In other white label news, Media General partnered with Groupon to start running local Daily Deals in their media outlets. The southeastern-based newspaper conglomerate started with deals for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, appropriately called the Richmond Daily Deal (powered by Groupon). Future plans include running similar services for their papers in Tampa and Winston-Salem. [MarketingPilgrim]
- LivingSocial acquired Urban Adventures, a site where young professionals can sign up for guided day and overnight trips. While the amount remains undisclosed, LivingSocial hopes to bring Urban Adventures’ trips to its more than 10 million subscribers. Testing will begin in five markets yet to be announced. [Mashable]
- Contrary to a prior university study, Business owners in Virginia report their enthusiasm for Daily Deals. Businesses in the Richmond area that set up deals using Groupon and LivingSocial reported a high amount of customer exposure, earned higher profits, and received more positive feedback compared to traditional advertising. [Richmond BizSense]
- Tippr CEO Martin Tobias laments Groupon’s pricing power with respect to business and consumers [Deep Green Crystals]
- Finally, we were recently featured on CNN! Jim and Vin explain how Yipit works and our innovative business model. Watch the video here. [CNN]
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.