Groupon entered Indian market (with SoSasta acquisition) and it seems, its competitor, LivingSocial too is planning to enter the Indian market.
We just spotted an ad (Google adsense) that targets LivingSocial’s Bangalore landing page, i.e. www.livingsocial.com/Bengaluru. (assuming that you are visiting the page from Indian IP, you can see the ad on any page that targets ‘deal(s)’ keyword).
Unfortunately, the page (www.livingsocial.com/Bengaluru) doesn’t really exist, though you can access their Bangalore page via this url. This is email subscription page and there are no deal/launch details on the page (except for a custom logo).
Given that Groupon’s SoSasta acquisition has been a namesake acquisition, does it really make sense for LivingSocial to enter a new territory which mandates newer ways of closing deals?
That is, the standard telesales route doesn’t really work in India and Groupon India, for whatever it is worth hasn’t really done any different job vis-à-vis several other Groupon clones that exist in India.
As far as LivingSocial is concerned, it seems like they are testing waters and collecting email ids for marketing purpose.
Maybe, another Indian clone is about to get lapped up? Take your pick (read: The Super Duper List of Groupon Clones in India [28 and counting]).
