Google officially launched Google Offers, the company’s new Groupon competitor, in Portland Oregon today.
Google Offers was announced in February, and the beta first went live in April. Today, consumers in Portland can get a deal, or…an offer.
The first offer comes from Portland coffee shop Floyd’s Coffee. “Husband-and-wife team Jack Inglis and Cris Chapman opened Floyd’s seven years ago, offering up espresso, coffee, breakfast burritos and more,” says Google Offers Product Manager Kyle Harrison. “They now have two convenient locations—one cozy, brick-lined shop in Old Town and another Stumptown watering-hole in Buckman.”
Google says it’s working with other local Portland businesses Le Bistro Montage, Powell’s Books, and Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade on other offers.
Google Offers will launch in New York City and San Francisco next, and the company says it hopes to launch in other cities soon.
It sure is getting off to a slow start. It feels like this is the third time they’ve launched the product, and it’s only just launched its first offer for the city of Portland. Groupon and LivingSocial are gaining ground in this space all over the place, and Facebook has entered the fray as well, not to mention plenty of smaller, niche players. Even Glenn Beck has entered on the game.
Groupon is going so far as to make deals with location-based services like Loopt and Foursquare to spread its deals (not to mention having bought such a service of its own). Google has plenty of advantages (search, Place Pages, and Android to name a few) that will come into play for Google Offers, but it’s going to have to expand quickly to cover a lot more ground to give Groupon a run for its money.
