As the whole startup world is going crazy over Groupon and it’s alleged 6 billion $ (US, not Zimbabwean!) offer from Google, I just want to look onto the tiny South African market, where it looks like Group-buying ‘Giant’ Groupon is about to launch under the domain name mycitydeal.co.za. They use that rather lenghty and generic domain, as the groupon.co.za domain, seems to be registered by Competitor WiiCount.
The launch of Groupon in South Africa was to be expected, as there are currently many Groupon clones starting up on the South African market. While the whole technology is operated by Groupon Europe GmbH out of Berlin, there is one surprise to be found:
mycitydeal.co.za is a service of:
Groupon South Africa
office at Boulevard Office Park, Block G, Ground Floor
Searle Street, Woodstock
Cape Town 8001Phone: 0844 879 2888
e-mail: info(at)mycitydeal.co.zaDirector: Christopher Muhr
Responsible for the content of this website: Twangoo South Africa PTY Ltd.
Groupon seems to cooperate with one of their clones when it comes to the sales side of operations instead of setting up their own local sales force: To me this is somehow surprising, as Twangoo (part of a group of global groupon clones) is a direct competitor to Groupon in the South African market and I wonder who’s going to get the better deals or if both platforms will see identical deals every day… Maybe this is also a sign that Groupon and Groupon Europe (that started as citydeal.de and were just aquired by Groupon a few months ago) are getting closer to other clones and think about aquiring Twangoo soon?
Just some thoughts for clarity: Do you really think Groupon is a viable business model and yet another clone is going to succeed? Livingsocial CEO clarifies the real cost of building your own Dailydeal site in this video and I think that a quick exit may be the only really profitable way out. But seeing that Google did NOT buy Groupon (and I highly doubt that 6 billion was ever offered by them!) there may be less options than you hope there are…
There are many group buying sites that were started in the last few months in South Africa. I don’t think that many of them will be live a few months down the road…
This behaviour by Groupon is more than strange. I can’t see how Twangoo and the El Media group could fit into their aquisition strategy.
Suprising they went after Twangoo and not Wicount. Wicount launched well before, has a good track record and has offered better deals, and, they own the domain. Is this deal confirmed with Twangoo? What’s the source?
Tom: Wicount is – from my personal experience (enduser perspective and as a webmaster) – very badly executed. Usability and SEO is extremely poor… I got a spreadsheet with all participants in the market, I might publish that the next few days…
This behaviour by Groupon is more than strange. I can’t see how Twangoo and the El Media group could fit into their aquisition strategy.
Thought you might like to take a look at http://www.salewine.co.za – Flash wine sale site, as far as i can see SA only one.
[…] my best knowledge my blog post “Groupon to launch in South Africa in cooperation with Twangoo” dated December 17th was the first public posting about the Twangoo/Groupon connection and I […]
What happened to your weather.co.za site you were going to set up?
:~” I am really thankful to this topic because it really gives great information ..;
In a world of expense, discount is key. This model may have a limited lifespan, but will definitely produce some powerful marketing strategies, which Groupon would not mind seeing. (or adding to their portfolio)
Groupon will without a doubt, enjoy the free flow of creativity in both marketing and business innovation.
We are doing it here – and they will apply it world wide!