While LivingSocial struggles, Deal.com.sg launches 2nd collection point in Singapore

Updated on 28 February.

Welcome to the land of the living dead — at least that’s what the media and pundits will have you believe about the daily deals industry. Things took another turn for the worst when news broke that LivingSocial had to make large concessions to get USD 110M in financing.

For the rest of the daily deals industry, that’s horrible news. LivingSocial, being the second largest group buying company in the world, is the standard bearer for the others. LivingSocial’s valuation has sunk too — the company is now worth about USD 1.5B, down from USD 4.5B during the previous financing round.

Which brings us to a new development: Deal.com.sg, one of the largest daily deals sites in Singapore, has announced that it has launched a second physical collection point in the country. The news release certainly seems timely, coming shortly after word spread about LivingSocial’s debacle. Read more

Dealguru acquires Room Service Deliveries, shows it’s serious about online food delivery

Dealguru, the company behind Deal.com.sg, one of Singapore’s largest group buying sites, announced today that it has acquired Asian Room Service, which runs Room Service Deliveries. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

With this partnership, Dealivery will be merged into Room Service Deliveries. Dealguru says the combination will make them the biggest food delivery service in Southeast Asia. Read more

Facebook Offers rolls out in Asia, gives daily deal sites a run for their money

Facebook has launched a feature that allows users to get special deals from merchants within the social network.

The deals will appear on their news feeds, and after claiming a deal, an email will be sent to the user. The deal can then be redeemed by flashing the email at a store.

Facebook Offers is currently in beta and is being rolled out to selected businesses in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, US, and Turkey, according to The Verge. Read more

Deal.com.sg starts its own food delivery site, challenges Rocket Internet’s FoodPanda

Just days after the mighty Rocket Internet launched their online food delivery service Food Panda in Southeast Asia, Singapore’s second largest daily deals site Deal.com.sg unveiled their very own competitor today —  DEALivery.sg.

Both websites now join HungryDelivery.com and EatIt.sg in an increasingly competitive food fight — a boon for consumers.

Rocket Internet is a German technology incubator that has been aggressively expanding to Southeast Asia in a variety of online verticals: Fashion store Zalora, Amazon-like website Lazada, and a Pinterest-clone called Pinspire.

Read more

Man proposes to girlfriend on daily deals site Deal.com.sg

If a daily deals devotee wants to propose to his lover, there’s only one way he can do it — by cutting her a wedding deal. Yep, Singaporean Dexter Ng, a “long-time Deal.com.sg fan”, recently proposed to his girlfriend of two years, Sharmane Ten on the site.

The exclusive deal for Shermane includes lifelong warranty for household chores, food delivery, random kisses, and fathering children. Perks include everlasting and unconditional bliss, love handles on tummy as a safety feature, the stomping of cockroaches within a five metre radius, and many more. Read more

Deal.com.sg releases iPhone app

Deal.com.sg, a Singapore-based daily deals website which rivals Groupon Singapore in sales revenue, has just launched its own iPhone app today in an arms race to compete with its muscular competitor (see SGE’s stories on the Singapore scene). Read more

Death by poor execution: How your startup can avoid failure

As a former venture capitalist I’ve been privileged to interact with numerous entrepreneurs in South Asia and play a small role in some start-up ventures. A few of these succeeded and went on to become large companies while many others failed.

Some ended up as lifestyle businesses – the living dead in VC parlance – and continue to chug along never quite realizing their original promise.

Read more

Group Buying Deals – How Much of a Good Thing is Too Much?

Who doesn’t love a good deal, even when it involves a spa session we didn’t know we wanted? Thanks to the proliferation of group buying sites, bargain-hunters no longer have to wait for special holiday promotions or end-of-season sales to snap up a good deal. All they have to do is check their e-mail.

Sounds great, right? Well, not really, say critics who are concerned about whether merchants can turn a profit using the group buying business model. As recent reports in the US and Japan have shown, being the hot ticket of the moment isn’t always a good thing. The sudden surge in demand can sometimes be overwhelming for merchants, resulting in unhappy customers and employees.

In Singapore, DEAL.com.sg felt the heat from angry customers recently when a 4D/3N Bangkok travel deal ended up offering less than what was promised. Read more

A Performance Guide on Singapore’s Groupon Clones Scene – Part 2

Following the boiling hot Groupon Clones scene in Singapore, Southeast Asia deal aggregator, All Deals Asia, started collecting data since August 2010. They are now tracking 15 daily deal sites in Singapore.

This Part 2 article is the concluding piece to the previous part about the performance of daily deal companies in Singapore.

Below, you can find an updated Performance Chart and a ranking review of the various companies. Read more

Deal.com.sg Raises Additional USD 1M From Rebate Networks

Today Deal.com.sg announced that it has raised an additional US$1 million from its current investors, Rebate Networks, to further expand its leadership position in Singapore’s daily deal market. They have reached more than SGD 350K (USD 272K) in monthly sales within 5 months of operations. Read more