Today marks the first foray into step No. 389 toward Mark Zuckerberg’s plan for total Internet domination. To cash in on the boom for online discounts that made Groupon a multibillion-dollar company overnight, Facebook is testing Deals, its own group-coupon offering, in five cities. Compared to rivals like Amazon’s Living Social, Facebook has the advantage of 600 million members and constantly updating stream about what they “like” and who their friends are. Facebook’s director for local, Emily White, said Deals, which will be delivered via e-mail but will also show up in your news feed, will make it easy to share discounts and see what friends are buying. Aside from the fun of bursting the bubble around Groupon’s impending IPO and making sure that Facebook is embedded in your every online activity, Zuckerberg has another incentive for muscling into a crowded market: getting users to buy and spend Zuckerbuck$ Facebook credits.
Up until now the virtual currency has been limited mostly to the type of people who spam their newsfeed begging for a virtual cow or cabbage. Have you guys noticed how the dollar keeps dropping? We bet Zuckerberg has, too.
Facebook Is Latest Rival to Groupon and LivingSocial [Bits/NYT]
