That seems strictly inferior to Groupon: it cannibalizes existing customers by design, but to get there, you need to nondeterministicly charge people's credit cards. So it is a reward card, with the restaurant paying 50% of reward values to, um, not reward their customers except weeks after the fact some of the time.
Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse
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Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse
#12While it's a theoretically cool concept, the actual implementation doesn't appeal that much to me as a consumer and I'm not sure it'll really appeal to businesses. Would I want to get $20 at a nearby pizza place for $10? Sure. But how useful is it if I have to wait an indeterminate amount of time (if ever) to get the deal? I'm likely to only suggest local businesses that I frequent a lot anyway, and how useful is it…
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Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse
#13While it's a theoretically cool concept, the actual implementation doesn't appeal that much to me as a consumer and I'm not sure it'll really appeal to businesses. Would I want to get $20 at a nearby pizza place for $10? Sure. But how useful is it if I have to wait an indeterminate amount of time (if ever) to get the deal? I'm likely to only suggest local businesses that I frequent a lot anyway, and how useful is it…
A friend of mine has a company in Japan which pretty much solved this. Solution: big digital billboard in mall which aggregates tweets from mall merchants. If nobody is getting their hair cut, they tweet "$5 off for next person at Cheap Cuts" from cell phone. Merchants/mall apparently think it is a gift from God.
Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse
#14This sounds like enabling haggling in markets where traditionally it hasn't been done (even in Asia where haggling over price for any product is quite common).
If I say I will go to a restaurant on the condition that I get a 50% discount, I'm probably not going to spend much more there or go back again without a discount. Not sure this is a winner for businesses.
Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse
#15Hmm, I request a deal from a business nearby. I am already there physically, but I don't get anything at that time, for all the effort I've put into getting there.
I have moved on, it is three months later - I might be in a different country for all you know - and voila, a credit card transaction tells me that I've purchased some deal that I probably have no longer any interest in.
Seems like it could have worked in 1980, but for today, I see gaping holes in user experience.
Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse
#16Honest question... Does anyone on HN use Loopt? I've tried it a few times over the years and it never really comes to close to making me want to continue using it.
I tried, but it was before iPhone had any kind of push notifications, live in a low population area, not a lot of my friends are early-adopter social tech types, and I'm too old to want to hang out with random people I saw on Loopt -- so, it didn't work for me. I'd be willing to give it another try.
Interestingly, in the meantime, there was a lot of foursquare adoption among friends and in the area -- enough to get network effect benefit. I don't think many of my friends have heard of Loopt.
Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse
#17It sounds good that using loopt to search some kind of stuff which you need it instantly(like cafe,bar..) in a local place you are not familiar, rather than using it like Groupon's vision.
The most importantly, local markets should feed back the system instantly and people can make proper decisions at that moment.
I think, mainly idea is cool.
Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse
#18While it's a theoretically cool concept, the actual implementation doesn't appeal that much to me as a consumer and I'm not sure it'll really appeal to businesses. Would I want to get $20 at a nearby pizza place for $10? Sure. But how useful is it if I have to wait an indeterminate amount of time (if ever) to get the deal? I'm likely to only suggest local businesses that I frequent a lot anyway, and how useful is it…
This is a much better idea. Instead of daily deals, realtime deals. Let the business offer a limited time deal (30mins, 1hr, or until they cancel). For example, an empty restaurant or bar could post a 50% discount for customers placing orders in the next 30 mins - not only giving their staff something to do but a busier restaurant/bar gives social proof attracting further customers later once the deal expires. Would also allow them to better manage the people taking advantage of the deal, by monitoring the response rates and adjusting the discount or ending the deal as they see fit. The scarcity factor of a deal that could end at any moment might also be especially attractive to customers. Loopt would be well positioned to do this, because the customers who would want to take advantage of a real time deal would be those currently in the vicinity of the business (to avoid travelling to a deal only to find it has ended) and I believe they have that data.
Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse
#19I think this is interesting -- I'd probably use it in high density areas with lots of options, only. For instance, there are ~50 restaurants in Castro St in Mountain View. I've been to 15. I'd like to try about 20 of the others, so signing up for all of those would make sense.
It's probably best suited for finding new service providers for recurring needs (gas, car washes, oil changes, ammunition, range time, food) and less suited for one-offs (funerals, weddings, ...).
Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse
#20While it's a theoretically cool concept, the actual implementation doesn't appeal that much to me as a consumer and I'm not sure it'll really appeal to businesses. Would I want to get $20 at a nearby pizza place for $10? Sure. But how useful is it if I have to wait an indeterminate amount of time (if ever) to get the deal? I'm likely to only suggest local businesses that I frequent a lot anyway, and how useful is it…
There was an Internet cafe chain in Europe and NYC, run by Stelios (the EasyJet guy), called EasyEverything, back around 1999-2001.
They did dynamic pricing inside the webcafe, based on occupancy.
This kind of feedback through pricing, through some kind of tech channel, maybe with location based service, would be awesome.