6 Daily Deal Sites that Closed Their Doors in 2011

Daily Deal Media’s Countdown to the New Year

As we prepare to close the curtain on another year, DDM takes a look back at the roller coaster ride of events that made up the daily deals industry in 2011. From acquisitions to patent trolls to IPOs and even some surprises, over the next two weeks we’ll share just a few of the highlights that took us through the year.

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The daily deals and group buying industry saw a number of closings in 2011. Some had barely gotten traction before they called it quits, while at least one was well established and moving full steam ahead, giving proof that one misstep can take down the strongest of players. Here are just six on the growing list of daily deal closures.

Facebook Deals – Facebook axed its Facebook Deals just four months into the game after a test market in five cities. Facebook still offers deals through another service, check-in deals but decided it was not in its best interest to offer the Groupon-like deals service.

BuyWithMe – BuyWithMe laid off a large portion of its workforce without warning and closed its doors. The site had previously been on a major acquisition spree buying six sites in as many months but they simply ran out of money. BuyWithMe sold to Gilt Groupe a short time later.

Zappon – Zappon, owned by South African media company Avusa Media, launched earlier this year but could not withstand the heavy competition.

Taggle.com – Taggle, the Bangalore, based deal provider was opened for 18 months before it closed its doors. The company cited current market conditions and said that the only way they could stay in business was to get into a price war which would burn through their investors’ money and they were not willing to do that.

Vamoose.in – DDM saw the launch and the demise of Vamoose, Travelmartindia.com’s entrant into the group buying travel niche. The site closed down this past fall and was merged back into the parent company which now offers deals on its site.

Dealon – DealOn was acquired by ReachLocal for $10 million earlier this year but closed just this month. ReachLocal said they never intended to build a deal of the day business but purchased the site for its technology platform.

COMING SOON
Complete data and in-depth coverage of the 2011 deal industry is provided exclusively in our upcoming Daily Deal Media Year End Industry Report, available January 2012. This inclusive report covers the entire Daily Deal industry, including companies, opportunities, investors, emerging markets, new products and services, trends and forecasts and much more. Please contact us for more information or subscribe to our mailing list for updates.

More comprehensive information and data for the daily deal industry can also be found in the Insights section of DailyDealMedia.com