Facebook Shuts Down Deals Program after 4 Months

It was a lovely 3rd of November afternoon when we first heard of Facebook’s intent to create a Deals Program amongst a handful of other new features for the social networking ecosystem, and now not quite four months after its inception, the program has been cut entirely. While the Facebook Deals program seemed at first to very much be an obvious Groupon Rival, even an early June 2011 announcement of a possible UK sect of the program did not prove enough to keep the system alive, and today Facebook has announced the cutting of the Deals.

Back the same day the Facebook Deals program was launched, we analyzed the situation, hypothesizing that this new platform could have the potential to drive more location based service usage, it appears that Chicago-based Groupon has proved too much for the big blue social networking site. Over in Palo Alto, California, Facebook has released a statement which made clear their intentions for the moment:

“After testing Deals for four months, we’ve decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks[,] We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses[,] We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.” – Facebook

Facebook had thus far begun testing their Deals program in April in the USA in five major US cities: Atlanta, San Diego, Austin, Dallas, and San Francisco. Meanwhile the multi-faceted business empire known as Google is currently testing their own online coupon program, one by the name of Google Offers. It’s important to note at this point that just last year Google attempted to purchase Groupon for a reported $5 billion USA only to be turned down by the undisputed king of group-based deals.

Meanwhile Facebook did add that while they were indeed shutting down Facebook Deals, they would stay true to the notion that connecting with local businesses was the way to go:

“[We are] committed to building products to help local businesses connect with people, like Ads, Pages, Sponsored Stories, and Check-in Deals.” – Facebook

Check-in Deals differs from the Facebook Deals program in that a mobile device such as a smartphone is required when you visit a local business, you then “checking-in” and receiving some sort of discount or deal for literally being there on site with your device.

[via AFP]

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Where Is the Facebook for Old People?

They did it for phones – why not social networks?

Pew just released a study whose takeaway is that the first time ever, half of all Americans report being on some kind of social network, such as Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin or Twitter. (The survey didn’t mention Google+ or any others.)

But of course almost a third of Americans don’t access the Internet at all, ever, so in some sense the proportion who are accessing social networks is only relevant when compared to how many are accessing the web in the first place. And here’s where it gets interesting: One in three internet users — tens of millions of Americans — use the web without ever updating their status or checking out friends’ endless barrage of baby pictures.

Who are these Internet-savvy people who have completely dodged the personality-transforming phenomenon that is Facebook? For the most part, they’re older. While 83 percent of 18-29 year-olds use social networks (the figure is 89 percent for women in that bracket), only half of those 50-64 use social networks. (And what portion of those users were dragged onto them just so they could keep tabs on the young people?)

This suggests a business opportunity.

Where is the online social networking equivalent of the Jitterbug phone? Easy to use, foolproof, and designed, more than anything, to keep you connected to loved ones. Perhaps that’s the problem with social networks in the first place: they reward display and narcissism, exactly the traits most closely associated with youth. Apparently genuine connection will have to wait for a more advanced technology.

Follow @Mims or contact him via email

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