Groupon has been attempting to move beyond the waning group-discount space that it pioneered, and it’s now trying to do that by looking a little more like Yelp. This week, Groupon is beginning to roll out millions of individual pages for local businesses, giving them a place to display images, business hours, a phone number, a menu, and various other pieces of information. Visitors to those businesses will also be able to leave comments about them. The service was already being tested in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, DC, and Seattle, and Groupon says that it’ll be launching with 7 million total listings.
Groupon is trying to turn itself into Yelp
Local business pages aim to bring in more people looking for deals
Local business pages aim to bring in more people looking for deals
is The Verge’s executive editor. He has covered tech, policy, and online creators for over a decade.
Groupon will make the pages, and business owners can take them over
These local listings are being called Pages, and they tie back into Groupon’s core product too. Visitors to each page will be able to place a request that the business run a Groupon deal, and if there’s enough interest, Groupon will reach out to set one up.
All of these pages are being generated without businesses’ input, and Groupon is then providing tools that’ll allow owners to take them over. Business owners will be able to offer coupons and specials or pay to promote their page too. This’ll give Groupon another way to put deals in front of its users and potentially get them looking for more, as its classic deal pages are still the focus of the site.
Groupon's performance has continued to disappoint investors, and it's been trying for a while now to find new ways to draw people to its website to get them exploring deals. While it may look a lot like it's following Yelp's lead, these pages are still a logical step for Groupon, which is already focused on working with small businesses. Its next step is actually put the pages somewhere useful: there may be 7 million of them, but good luck finding more than a few on Groupon's site.
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