Groupon Still Dominates Daily Deals Space
Groupon widened its lead over LivingSocial in November as its gross billings rose from $145 million in October to $154 million in November, according to data provided by Internet tracking firm Yipit. While Groupon's billings rose 6 percent, LivingSocial's gross billings declined 5 percent to just $52 million in November, the report showed.
Gross billings represent the total amount customers pay to daily discount services like Groupon. They are watched very closely by industry analysts as they are the best indicator of how much business these companies are doing. They do not, however, represent revenue, as the companies must return more than half to the merchants selling the offer. Groupon experienced strong growth in early November, according to Yipit's figures, but sales dropped sharply after Thanksgiving as the holiday shopping period got underway.
Yipit is a company that tracks the daily deal industry and displays offers on its website. The firm does not, however, track the relatively new phenomena of instant, location-based offers, These instant deals, which Groupon and LivingSocial have both begun experimenting with, are still too new to keep track of and represent a small fraction of the overall daily deals business.
|
