Facebook confirmed late Friday that it is killing Deals, the daily offers program that the company launched in April.
Instead, Facebook will maintain its "check-in deals," which it launched last year."After testing Deals for four months, we've decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks," a Facebook spokeswoman said in an email. "We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses. We remain committed to building products to help local businesses connect with people, like Ads, Pages, Sponsored Stories, and Check-in Deals. We've learned a lot from our test and we'll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses."The termination of Deals leaves the field open to the dozens of daily-deals sites, most of which are estimated to be somewhere behind Groupon and LivingSocial, among others. In a memo that was leaked to the public this week, Groupon chief executive Andrew Mason characterized Facebook's Deals revenue as difficult to assess. Facebook's Deals program was always a bit confusing, however, and the cancellation of its Places mobile app earlier this week just muddies the waters.Facebook's latest product, called Deals on Facebook, is different from check-in offers, the service Facebook launched in November that rewards mobile users with discounts when they check in at different locations via the Facebook app. Initially, Deals on Facebook are available in Atlanta, Dallas, Austin, San Francisco, and San Diego, but the service will likely expand to more cities in the future. "While many Deals on Facebook offer discounts, it's more important to us that you find interesting experiences around you to do with friends," Emily White, Facebook's director of "local," wrote in a blog post at the time. "We've worked with partners and local businesses to help deliver the best social activities in your area. And once you've found a deal you like, having the deal on Facebook makes it easy to share, buy, and plan with your friends." Prior to that, Facebook had brought check-in Deals to the United Kingdom, and to the Android platform. Check-in deals, which pushes new deals out to existing customers, was designed to attract nearby new customers. Users can search for a list of nearby businesses offering deals, and in two clicks users can log in and claim the deal.
