Sam Altman will clean your house for $5
blog.agrawals.org
Sam Altman will clean your house for $5
1–10 of 74 posts
Re: Sam Altman will clean your house for $5
#2This reverse deal idea didn't make any sense when I heard about. But I have been surprised before, so would interesting to hear counterpoints.
The fundamental problems as I see it just starting with user persective: 1) I put in effort as a user to create a deal - with the high chance of no payoff - why would I ever do this the first time, let alone the second time 2) I have to wait for other people to join - so gratification is at best delayed 3) Very likely the deal will not be accepted by the merchant.
The ideal model for coupons would be take out the high cost of sales in this business. And getting businesses to go to a website and submit their deals by themselves. Of course SMB are notoriously slow to adopt new technology (many still advertise in YP). But over time, they will get there as well and the winner will be whoever is there when SMB begin making the move.
Re: Sam Altman will clean your house for $5
#3Besides the fact that the idea makes no sense, I find it downright wrong that Loopt is enriching itself at the expense of local businesses. Establishments work damn hard to establish a brand, and here is Loopt going around shitting all over them, without consent.
This is where I'd hope trademark law kicks in. Here's hoping Loopt gets what's rightfully coming to them.
Re: Sam Altman will clean your house for $5
#4Group buying is actually a variant on an older practice called Tuangou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuangou), which Loopt is recreating here.
Re: Sam Altman will clean your house for $5
#5When I first read about this - it seemed like a new Groupon angle that might have some legs.
Seeing it in the flesh - it feels wrong. It's passing-off.
Re: Sam Altman will clean your house for $5
#6Loopt is causing conflict with a business's potential customers simply by making such "deals" public when they don't actually exist and are meant solely to show businesses that customers want discounts. Off course people want discounts, but that doesn't mean the business is willing to give said discount.
Re: Sam Altman will clean your house for $5
#7Loopt seems like a democratized version of group purchase organizations (GPOs), which have been around forever and are used, for example, by groups of hospitals banding together to get bulk discounts on the things they regularly buy.
If you got ten of your friends together and put in bids on Loopt for a few different pizza places, it's not too different from the GPO process. You are basically saying, "I am willing to buy 10 pieces from you at this discounted rate." It makes me wonder if most of this talk about brand erosion etc is mostly alarmism.
Re: Sam Altman will clean your house for $5
#8This is slightly reminiscent of Get Satisfaction's model of creating support forums for companies unless they opt out.
And sometimes those companies take offense: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1650-get-satisfaction-or-else
Re: Sam Altman will clean your house for $5
#9Loopt seems like a democratized version of group purchase organizations (GPOs), which have been around forever and are used, for example, by groups of hospitals banding together to get bulk discounts on the things they regularly buy. If you got ten of your friends together and put in bids on Loopt for a few different pizza places, it's not too different from the GPO process. You are basically saying, "I am willing to…
nope, mtkd nailed it when he cited the "passing off" laws. they're not just banding people together to get bulk discounts, they're implying that the businesses in question already support their model, and are using those businesses' brand recognition to add legitimacy to loopt.
Re: Sam Altman will clean your house for $5
#10This is slightly reminiscent of Get Satisfaction's model of creating support forums for companies unless they opt out. And sometimes those companies take offense: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1650-get-satisfaction-or-else
Can companies really opt out of Get Satisfaction, or will they always be presented with the "Company X has not yet committed to open conversations about its products or services."
If Loopt explicitly allows companies to opt out (and prevent the creation of deals for that company) then perhaps the service might be beneficial (companies that opt in to stay may get valuable feedback of what the consumer wants/would be willing pay for).