While others in the space seem to have scaled back a bit in the daily deals department (see Facebook and Yelp), Google continues to amp up its efforts.
Since news that Facebook was ending its Deals offering (though keeping check-in deals) and Yelp was cutting back its Deals positions, Google has plugged Google Offers on the Google home page and launched the product in more markets.
Now, Google has purchased DailyDeal, a daily deals service from Germany. A message on the DailyDeal site says:
When DailyDeal was founded in Berlin back in December 2009, there was just two of us. Since then, we have seen tremendous growth, as people throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland have used DailyDeal to find local deals on their favorite restaurants, travel destinations, entertainment venues and retail outlets.
Our team has grown too, and with it, our vision for DailyDeal. We see great opportunity to better connect businesses with consumers on a much larger scale, and we have found a team that shares our vision.
That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve been acquired by Google! What began as a two-person startup less than two years ago has transformed into a trusted platform to connect businesses with consumers. By combining our expertise with the Offers team at Google, we hope to expand our efforts to provide even greater deals to consumers.
The DailyDeal team
On top of that, while the official announcement has yet to come out, Google Wallet is said to be launching today. This product should be a key weapon in Google’s arsenal of products that can help Google Offers thrive.