As it turns out, the daily deals landscape is more sophisticated than many first thought. New contours are emerging, each replete with opportunity and threat. Bluntly branding the space as “the next big thing” or a “can’t-miss opportunity” lacks the necessary strategic discernment in an industry replete with competitors and fortressed with high barriers to …

In two short years, LivingSocial has blossomed from a Facebook application development shop into a leading group buying platform in 230 markets and 12 countries. But the question du jour in deal a day isn’t “what have you done?” but “what’s next?” At ILM East, LivingSocial Chief Operating Officer Eric Eichmann mapped a diversified plan …

It’s hard work distilling 20,000 people, hundreds of sessions, droves of start-ups, seemingly endless parties and even a Mike Tyson cameo into a cliffs notes recap of SxSW Interactive. Not that anyone is shedding any tears for me. America loves lists (or so I’ve heard), so here are “the big ideas” that have my brain buzzing …

Last year, a deal-a-day panel at SxSW Interactive might have been relegated to a satellite campus (read: off-the-beaten-path Austin hotel). Two years ago, it may not have existed at all. But in 2011, group buying is a $1.2 billion market (according to us), and attendees packed a convention center ballroom to explore how the deals …

Last week, the latest spree of entrants forayed into the deal-a-day arena, with AT&T and The New York Times announcing group buying platforms that appear to be almost identical to those popularized by Groupon and LivingSocial. The most interesting of the newcomers, however, could be Microsoft Bing, which opted for an aggregated approach through The Dealmap’s …

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that AT&T Interactive will join the growing list of directory companies to launch a daily deal site. AT&T Interactive CEO David Krantz told The Journal that he believes AT&T could be “fast followers” and that there is still ample opportunity in the daily deals space, initially popularized by …

The French directory publisher PagesJaunes has joined the growing list of global Yellow Pages companies that are building or buying their way into the deal-a-day space. PagesJaunes has acquired the French group buying site top-deals.fr, and has rebranded the product as 123deal to be consistent with its 123people online people search brand.
We recently reported that …

Angie’s List, Kudzu and The Washington Post’s new ServiceAlley are providing group buying promotions for home and trade services. But is group buying the right paradigm for home and trade services?
Regional Help Wanted Cofounder Eric Straus says no. Instead, Straus has launched 10LocalCoupons.com, which offers home and trade services the ability to include their …

The interrelationship of daily deals with TV and radio stations and newspapers intrigues us with potential. While not a big factor, traditional media companies can parlay their brand name, promotional power, sales forces and Web sites to reach new merchants that never would have otherwise advertised with them.
Second Street Media, Tippr, TownHog and a host …

Local.com, which recently introduced an integrated coupon and sales platform as part of its relaunch, has announced that it will enter the group buying/deal-a-day space via the acquisition of iTwango, a Los Angeles-based start-up that launched in October. The company, founded by former Citysearch CTO Hal Oreif, will be rebranded under Local.com.
The company’s first group …

A slew of companies provide white-label deal-a-day services for media partners (i.e., Nimble Commerce, Deal Current, ShoutBack, Matchbin, Wantsa, VendAsta, Analog Analytics … it goes on).
Another breed maintains its own local deal sites and fleshes them out with local media partners in the same market, building up an inventory. These include the big guys like …

Deal-a-day group buying is a certain hit. But how important is it in the scheme of things for local media companies? For The San Diego Union-Tribune, deals represented “the number one new revenue growth,” in 2010, according to Mike Hodges, VP of interactive for the newspaper company, who was quoted in a recent UT article …

Chicago, the original home base of deal a day, courtesy of Groupon’s Windy City headquarters, has its latest DOD offering through the partnership of a prominent local publisher and white-label provider. Wantsa, a group buying platform that teams with newspapers, online publishers and social networks, is launching a Chicago division across the Sun-Times’ portfolio of properties. 
Sun-Times Media is …

Group buying platform LivingSocial has taken another important step in differentiating itself as more than just another deal a day, building on its recent acquisition of social adventures company UrbanEscapes to unveil LivingSocial Espcapes. The new travel-focused offering segments getaways into three distinct categories: urban (in town), nearby and destination.
Escapes works much like LivingSocial’s standard daily deals, …

With more than 150 brands offering daily deals, and traditional media companies now building out their own deals platforms, the need for differentiation is apparent. LivingSocial, which according to compete.com boasts as many monthly unique visitors as Groupon, has acquired social adventure company Urban Escapes to position itself as a “local activity discovery engine,” not simply a deals provider.
Rather than deals, …

The future of city guides has been morphing beyond events and features. This was driven home today by the launch of Metromix Deals, a JV between Metromix, the 50+ site city guide chain co-owned by Gannett and Tribune, and Local Offer Network, which separately operates Deal Radar.
The effort is the latest “aggregator” to bundle …

Media General is the latest traditional media franchise to partner with a deal-a-day provider, launching a partnership with Groupon to open a new revenue stream in the much-hyped group buying space.
Media General owns both local television stations (18 total) and newspapers (21 daily and more than 200 specialty publications), and the partnership covers both markets. …

The Canadian publisher DirectWest has teamed up with VendAsta to enter the hot group buying space.The new service will be called Mysaskdeals, and it is reportedly the first of its kind in Saskatchewan.
“We are very excited about this new offering,” said Gord Farmer, DirectWest President & CEO. “For more than 50 years, DirectWest has been …

The Canadian publisher DirectWest has teamed up with VendAsta to enter the hot group buying space. The new service will be called Mysaskdeals, and it is reportedly the first of its kind in Saskatchewan.
“We are very excited about this new offering,” said Gord Farmer, DirectWest president and CEO. “For more than 50 years, DirectWest has …

The deal-a-day model thrives on the power of its e-mail list, sales channels, promotion, clever copywriting and vendor selection. Newspapers and TV stations should be especially well positioned to leverage these strengths, right? Many, in fact, are diving in to deal a day via partner relationships with Groupon and LivingSocial, or vendor relationships with the …