Big players muscle in on the king of online coupons

Big discounts on a lavish caviar brunch. A cooking and wine-pairing class at a knock-down price. Customised bouquets for Mother's Day from one of Manhattan's most exclusive florists. For New Yorkers, these are the cut-price offers that have landed in their inboxes over the past week.

The craze for email coupons, popularised by Groupon, has reached the upper echelons of Manhattan society, thanks to a copycat service from the New York Times which the newspaper calls TimesLimited.

Newspapers and other firms across the United States are piling in to this marketing opportunity.

The New York Times launched TimesLimited at the end of March. This week it was the turn of AT&T, the phone company that publishes the Yellow Pages in the US. Mark Fratrik, vice-president at BIA/Kelsey, a research firm tracking the explosive growth of deal-of-the-day coupons, says Yellow Pages, newspapers and other local media businesses already have the sales infrastructure to go hunting for deals to offer email subscribers.

McClatchy, one of the biggest publishers of local newspapers in the US, partnered with Groupon last year but has since decided it does not need the middleman for its deal-of-the-day service. The San Francisco Chronicle and even Playboy magazine are now getting in on the act.

Other potent challengers cater to particular industries. Restaurants can offer discounts via the booking service OpenTable's Spotlight and designer-label clothing and accessories are being offered on sale to subscribers of Gilt.com.

And last but not least, here come the giants. Google has launched Google Offers, and Facebook Deals launched last month.

No one thinks that the craze for deals will go away. As long as businesses are willing to offer big savings to win a new generation of customers, there will be money to be made from bringing the two together. The only question is, how much?

"With three or four services in all these local markets offering to publicise your deal of the day, that competition has to lead to a lower percentage cut for Groupon and others," says Fratrik.

- INDEPENDENT