Groupon is currently testing a new “Groupon VIP” program that gives users first dibs on deals and reservations while offering special pricing on select old-out and expired deals for just $30 per year.

The idea comes about from sites such as Ideeli which offers first dibs on designer clothes that would normally fly off the shelve in a retail setting. Flash sales have become a big deal on the internet and this new move by Groupon takes direct advantage of flash sales on a potentially large scale.

The service will also provide in-store credit for unused Groupon’s in some cases which we assume will need prior approval from the seller. It’s estimated that 20 percent of Groupons go unused at this time.

The program should also let Groupon compete with the likes of Living Social and Google Offers which allow merchants to keep a greater percentage of the profits while giving customers the chance to comparison shop before making a purchase.  read more

Groupon on Wednesday announced the acquisition of Campfire Labs, a company that has yet to launch but showed promise thanks to a line of social shopping enhancement services. It’s believed Groupon will use the company to better their merchant, customer and customers friends communication while possibly helping the social buying company expand into small business participation.

The social buying company has been on a purchasing tear, they recently purchased OpenCal and used that technology to create the Groupon Scheduler product. Using the Groupon scheduler buyers can purchased a Groupon then go right in and schedule an appointment if one is needed for the purchase.

By offering better service and the ability to schedule locally Groupon could find themselves in a position to offer better, more accurate and real-time service to local merchants and merchants in smaller markets which have been ignored because of size and customer service related inefficiencies.  read more

Groupon on Wednesday rolled out Groupon Rewards, a new program that allows businesses to provide extra incentives to Groupon users who spend a certain amount of money with their company.

Integrated with Point of Sale systems the program allows businesses to offer special incentives as users pass varying thresholds, those incentives then become available as special Groupon offers.

In a blog post Groupon says of the system:

“Consumers earn rewards at participating merchants simply by paying with the credit or debit card they have on file at Groupon.com,” while adding, “After spending an amount set by the merchant, the consumer unlocks the ability to purchase a special Groupon for that business.” read more

This week has been one of big changes as Google+ rolled out to the general public, Facebook announced massive upgrades to their social networking system and StumbleUpon managed to anger users a month ahead of their proposed changes. Here’s 5 stories from the last week you should be sure to check out.

Google+ Ditches Private Invite-Only Status, Welcomes Everyone To Platform

Google+ managed to attract more than 30 million users to their new social network when it was in closed beta with private Google and user invites only and this week they announced that anyone can now join and enjoy the network. With Facebook fans angered over the networks newest changes to profiles Google+ could have a big month ahead of them in terms of user number growth.

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Location based service Foursquare has teamed up with daily social coupon site Groupon to offer users daily deals in the Explore tab of the Foursquare application.

Offering daily deals through partners is nothing new for Foursquare which has previously teamed up with LivingSocial, Gilt City, AT&T Interactive, BuyWithMe and Zozi however the Groupon offers are by far the largest to grace the applications presence.

Foursquare plans to fully launch the program on Sunday which will see Groupon’s daily deals appearing next to their five other partners on a regular basis. The program is convenient since the deals are pulled in by location, which means a user visiting another city doesn’t have to reconfigure their favorite daily deals sites to find special offers each day.

As with their other partners Foursquare will give the mayor of each location a special deal on top of the Groupon deal, while the partnership will earn Foursquare a part of Groupon’s revenue for each deal they help close, making the partnership truly beneficial for everyone involved. read more

A leaked embargo notice posted by the New York Times and picked up by TechCrunch is claiming that Facebook Deals is in the process of launching in the United States, a move that could be realized in all initial launch locations by Monday night.

The program which launched 3 months ago in Europe is seen as a direct competitor to Groupon, Living Social and Google Offers among other social buying platforms.

According to the report the program is first launching in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco with other cities to follow in the near future.

Much like their competitors, Facebook will offer deep discounts to customers of their service, discounts provided by company’s around the country who want to sell their products quickly and introduce new users to their offerings.

While there is no certain future for Facebook Deals, the company does have some huge advantages against their competitors which in turn could signal major trouble for Groupon. For example, rumors are circulating that retailers may not have to pay for the service. Under current business models businesses must pay social buying sites a percentage of their sales in order to secure their services, however Facebook may decide to profit only when Facebook Credits are used to buy products, allowing retailers to keep more of their upfront profits when users pay with credit cards and other payment services outside of Facebook’s virtual currency.

According to the report, Facebook Credits will be allowed to be used as payment and let’s be honest for a moment, how many users who meant to buy “in-app” products are going to unload their virtual real world cash on a really cool deal they see on Facebook Deals before they buy that next Farmville add-on they were planning to grab. Impulse spending is the name of the game and with their Facebook Credits making a huge splash for the company Facebook can already tap into users who with a few simple clicks may be willing to buy products from their deals platform. read more

In December 2010 social deals platform LivingSocial announced $175 million in funding from web empire Amazon and now just four months later the company has raised $400 million in a new round of funding.

At this time the sources for the new funding round have not been disclosed, however they are said to have come from both public and private sources.

In a public statement the company says they will use the money to create new innovations in their space, while expanding both domestically and globally.

Along with that funding the company now sits at a valuation of approximately $2 billion, while announcing more than 26 million members now use the site to find daily deal specials.

When the company’s first large Amazon round of funding was announced LivingSocial stated that they were currently raising $1 million in gross sales per day with $500 million revenue expected in 2011. read more

Deal-of-the-day website Groupon has officially entered the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Operating under the website www.groupon.ae. The company will initially serve Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and slowly into other cities in the coming months. With UAE, the company now brings its presence into 43 countries around the globe and savings of about $1.8 billion for its members.

Despite competition from other daily-deal sites, including its ex-suitor Google, Groupon has managed to cement its foothold in different countries, using the principles of collective buying that delivers new revenue streams to local businesses. Its massive membership, coupled with thirst for daily deals, is a natural come-on for all kinds of businesses to offer deals.

“Groupon’s expansion to United Arab Emirates is another step in our development as a global Internet brand,” said Rob Solomon, president and chief operating officer of Groupon. “Groupon UAE will change the face of the local collective buying market, leveraging the best practices Groupon has pioneered in more than 40 countries around the globe.”

The entry to UAE came right after announcing its entry to China by launching Gaopeng.com, a collaboration with local-based Tencent.com. What is important here is the potential to tap into the world’s biggest Internet population with more than 457 million users.

The company just recently announced that it has raised an additional $16.12 million in funding led by Ted Leonsis, vice-chairman emeritus of AOL.

Social networking now accounts for the largest amount of total time spent online by Australians.

In a report released by comScore on The State of the Internet in Australia, Australians consumed about 22 percent of their time online in December 2010, up by 5.3 percentage points compared to the same month the previous year. This explains why Facebook is the top site by total minutes spent in Australia. Different sources place the total number of Australians using Facebook at 8 to 10 million active users.

Portals came in second at 19.7 percent and Instant Messengers accounted for 11.6 percent. Both shed points to social networking. Entertainment rose to 11.1 percent from 9.1 percent in 2009.

The report also revealed that group-buying continued to gain traction over the past year. Cudo of MSN leads the space with 418,000 unique visitors in December 2010. This landscape is expected to change with the entry of Groupon, known as Stardeals, in Australia.