In 2011, we wrote about how Groupon must fail to save the internet. At the time, there were already some fishy things happening in the Daily Deals segment of eCommerce and more fishiness continues to pop up even today. What happened to the promising future of Groupon and its biggest competitor, LivingSocial? With Amazon revealing that LivingSocial lost $650 million in 2012, it’s clear that both of the daily deals juggernauts are slipping. It seems like yesterday that Google was getting their $6 billion offer rejected by Groupon. What has changed? Why is the industry failing? To answer that, we…

The only thing certain about the future of daily deals is that the industry’s future is uncertain. It’s not a play on words or a failed attempt at sounding clever. If you ask 10 people where daily deals will be a year from now, you’ll probably get 10 completely different responses. The truth is, nobody knows for sure. We know that Wall Street isn’t treating Groupon well right now. We know that LivingSocial is looking as strong today as Groupon did a year ago after announcing a national deal with McDonald’s. We know that fortunes in the daily deals industry can turn on a dime. We also know that users are…

Google might of lost the battle with Groupon, but the Search Giant clearly feels that they have not lost the war in hyper-local deals just yet. Amidst their failed $6 billion takeover of Groupon, Google is now throwing out a line to smaller fish in the local deals marketplace. LivingSocial and BuyWithMe are now on Google’s radar, and while these two websites have achieved much less than Groupon, they are still formidable competitors in the marketplace. If Google has their eye on them and makes a purchase, Groupon might have something to worry about, especially when considering the power that Google wields with…