Another Groupon competitor shuts down its daily deals experiment:
Yelp reportedly giving up on its daily-deals effort
Los Angeles Times
August 29, 2011 | 7:19 pm
Yelp isn't quite pulling a Facebook, but it is largely pulling out of the daily deals game -- a market led by companies such as GroupOn and LivingSocial, according to a report.
Facebook killed off its Deals service Friday after launching it just four months ago in Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Dallas; San Diego; and San Francisco.
Yelp won't scrap working with businesses altogether, but its Yelp Deals daily-deal effort is being disbanded, Vince Sollitto, a Yelp spokesman told Bloomberg.
"Rather than offer more and more deals of inherently declining quality to more and more folks over time, we want to make sure we're only providing good, quality opportunities," Sollitto said. "While we think the deals business is a good one, it has never been a core focus of our offering."
Sollitto told Bloomberg that it will cut half of the 30-person staff dedicated to sales on Yelp Deals. The remaining 15 employees will move to other parts of Yelp's workforce, the report said.
Bloomberg reported that in July alone, about 38 daily-deal sites closed while 36 others opened. Both Groupon and LivingSocial are prepping themselves for potential IPOs.
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