Facebook to kill Deals, its daily discount program
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Facebook Inc. is killing Deals, its daily discount program similar to Groupon and LivingSocial.
The decision comes a mere four months after the social networking giant first rolled out Deals in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco, offering its own version of the flash discount sites that have proved popular since the economic downturn with offers for everything from haircuts to private jet rentals.
Facebook did not give a reason for ending Deals but said in a Friday statement that the program would conclude ‘in the coming months.’
‘We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses,’ Facebook said. ‘We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.’
The offers -- arranged by a sales team with local merchants -- were emailed to Facebook users who signed up to the program.
Facebook stresses that it will continue to connect local businesses to potential customers through other products such as Ads, Sponsored Stories and Pages. It will also continue to offer ‘check-in deals’ for users who check in and notify friends via Facebook where they are.
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--Shan Li
