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Adjuice opens new office.

Beyond Commerce, Inc. (OTCBB:BYOC.PK – News), a multi-faceted media hub for high traffic web properties announced today the launch of AdJuice.com, Inc.’s Deal-a-Day platform within its own hosting community of Las Vegas and Henderson in Nevada. AdJuice.com (www.adjuice.com)

AdJuice, Inc. operates from the new corporate headquarters in Henderson and currently offers local daily deals, representing approximately 100 local merchants and service providers. Consumers as well as Las Vegas visitors are offered unparalleled discounts, from 50% to 90% off stated value from local services and retail merchants.

Bob McNulty, CEO of the parent company Beyond Commerce, Inc. stated, “Deal of the day market has experienced incredible growth during the last three years. Local businesses continue to evolve as AdJuice.com focuses on small-to-midsize markets across America. Each month we will expand into two or three additional regions. Wider varieties of merchants join the group buying movement, including the luxury and higher priced categories. Group buying now cuts across nearly every consumer category, gaining broader reach to local markets.”

Social commerce, group buying, and daily deals have experienced a meteoric growth over the past two years. Consumers have insatiable demand for quality products and services at great prices. The daily deal business is one of the most intriguing and dynamic segments online today, with global audience and distribution across personal computers, mobile, tablets and living room devices.

Group buying industry in U.S. is estimated to grow 138 percent to $2.7 billion in 2011. According to latest reports, deal-a-day business is expected to grow rapidly in smaller markets across the USA that offer daily deals.

About AdJuice.com

AdJuice.com is a group-buying website that allows people to save up to 90% at their favorite local restaurants, stores, spas and other local businesses and share their savings with their friends, family and extended networks. AdJuice, Inc. is a wholly owned corporation of Beyond Commerce, Inc.

Tim Wizba -

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The gloves are off and LivingSocial vows to take Groupon down by the end of the year. WOW, if those aren’t fighting words, I don’t know what is. Let’s not forget about the contenders. ScoutMob, Google Offers, AmazonLocal, Facebook, eBay and ATT is expected to enter the ring. Those are just some of the big names. Now send in the clones and you really have gotten this party started.

In my opinion, here is when it REALLY gets interesting. The clones will be the deciding factor on which company emerges as the big gorilla and here’s my rationale. I went to the LivingSocial website to see what my daily deal would be. Typed in my city.. hummm, not listed. Ok, let’s try a neighboring city 6 miles from me. Again, NOT there. I typed in the word Santa (this should bring up Santa Rosa, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica) to my complete surprise NADA – ZILCHE – not even Santa Claus.

The closest city to me for my daily deal was San Jose which is 30 miles from me. My deal of the day was a package of three lube/oil/ filters for $33. Fantastic deal except the 60 mile round trip to get there kills the savings.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. I jumped out of my chair. Light bulbs went off; I spun around in circles like a man possessed. I literally began calling friends and family members that were looking for extra work and or income and briefly explained the daily deal blue print. Thousands of jobs have already been created, and thousands more WILL be created because these companies NEED physical workers for both inside and outside sales to grow their businesses. Mark my words, those who take the time to cluster together communities like mine establishing their own form of daily deals will have the opportunity to become millionaires either from pure sales and or being acquired by the big dawgs!

Just this past weekend back in one of my old stomping grounds:

PORTLAND, Ore.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sharing Spree, a daily deals website that donates a portion of every consumer purchase to non-profits and schools, announces today that it had a record breaking weekend from June 3-5 in Portland, Ore., selling more than 5,300 deals.

“This isn’t a winner-take-all business. We’re able to compete with industry giants, such as Groupon, Google Offers and LivingSocial, because we’re focusing on more than just offering great deals—we’re helping to raise awareness for local non-profits and schools that receive a donation for every deal we sell.”

The deal was $12 for an all-you-can-eat buffet, drink and $15 FunCard at John’s Incredible Pizza Company, a 54-percent savings for local consumers. At noon on Friday, the site had already sold more than 2,000 deals. The deal ended with more than 5,300 sold.

“Our successful weekend goes to show that there’s room for smaller daily deal sites that are focused on quality relationships with local consumers and businesses, as well as non-profits and schools,” said Timothy Moorehead, vice president of marketing for Sharing Spree. “This isn’t a winner-take-all business. We’re able to compete with industry giants, such as Groupon, Google Offers and LivingSocial, because we’re focusing on more than just offering great deals—we’re helping to raise awareness for local non-profits and schools that receive a donation for every deal we sell.”

As noted in a recent Bloomberg report, the BIA/Kelsey consulting firm has found that:

“The U.S. daily deals market, with discounts of as much as 90 percent at restaurants, clothing stores and nail salons, will grow to $3.93 billion in 2015, from $1.25 billion this year…Under the most favorable conditions, sales could reach as much as $6.1 billion”

I think they are WAY off. Groupon alone has a shot at $2 to $3 BILLION in revenues in their current fiscal year and remember, they are just ONE of the players.

Tim Wizba -

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/03/2250110/

miami-herald-to-launch-deal-saver.html#ixzz1OMJ0gLZ8

Tim Wizba -

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Groupon Inc.’s $540.2 million in operating losses since 2008 may leave some investors leery of buying shares in a company with a business model so easy to copy that it has spawned 482 imitators.

Groupon, the biggest provider of online daily-deal coupons, said yesterday that it plans to raise $750 million in an IPO, the most yet for a U.S. social media company.

Sales surged more than 14-fold to $644.7 million last quarter, making Chicago-based Groupon bigger than established technology companies like Citrix Systems Inc. and Autodesk Inc. Yet, with marketing costs rising faster than sales, Groupon may not make money fast enough to warrant the $25 billion valuation it was said to be contemplating in March, said Pat Becker Jr., a portfolio manager at Becker Capital Management Inc.

“Companies have to have profitability or a compelling case for a path to profitability,” said Becker, whose Portland, Oregon-based firm manages $2.5 billion. “We also look for barriers to entry and we just don’t see that in this particular business.”

Co-founded in 2008 by Andrew Mason, Groupon has ballooned in the past year as consumers worldwide flock to daily offers for discounts of up to 90 percent at hotels, restaurants and nail salons. The company’s gross profit, or the revenue left after sharing sales with merchants, jumped to $270 million in the first quarter from $20 million a year earlier.

‘Revolution in Retailing’

The daily-deal market pioneered by Groupon may generate $3.9 billion in U.S. sales in 2015, from $873 million in 2010, according to researcher BIA/Kelsey in Chantilly, Virginia.

Subscribers increased to 83.1 million in the first quarter from 3.4 million a year earlier, and the number of deals sold jumped to 28.1 million from 1.8 million. Groupon delivers coupons in more than 500 markets worldwide, compared with 260 for its top competitor, Washington-based LivingSocial.com.

“The whole deals space is the most revolutionary thing in retailing since the advent of e-commerce,” said Lou Kerner, managing director of the private shares group at Wedbush Securities Inc., in a televised interview on “Bloomberg West.” “This is a market that is going to be really, really big but it’s still really in its infancy.”

To handle the growth, Groupon bolstered its workforce to 7,107 employees as of March 31, from 37 in June 2009. Revenue per sales representative in the first quarter was $172,000 a month, up from $87,000 two years earlier, the company said.

The company had marketing costs of $208.2 million in the first quarter, resulting in a net operating loss of $117.1 million. Groupon spent $179.9 million on subscriber acquisitions, as it tries to build its lead over LivingSocial.

Profitability In Question

“Since our inception, we have prioritized growth, and investments in our marketing initiatives have contributed to our losses,” Groupon said in the filing. “Over time, as our business continues to scale and we become more established in a greater percentage of our markets, we expect that our marketing expense will decrease as a percentage of revenue.”

The size of the marketing budget will make it difficult to reach profitability any time soon, said A.B. Mendez, a research analyst at GreenCrest Capital Management LLC in New York.

“It’s not yet clear what their longer-term margins will be or when they will be able to get to consistent profitability,” Mendez said.

LinkedIn Corp., the No. 1 professional-networking site, last month became the first major U.S. social-media company to sell shares to the public. Shares of the Mountain View, California-based company have surged 75 percent since its May 18 debut and now has a market value of $7.5 billion.

Cheaper Than LinkedIn?

On a price-to-sales basis, Groupon may be cheaper than LinkedIn and Facebook Inc. LinkedIn is valued at 20 times this year’s sales, assuming first-quarter revenue is replicated throughout the year. A $25 billion valuation for Groupon would mean a price-to-sales ratio of 9.7. Facebook is valued at $55 billion on the secondary exchange SharesPost Inc., implying a ratio of about 13.8.

To justify its valuation, Groupon needs to convert marketing costs into profit by ensuring customers keep coming back, said Espen Robak, president of Pluris Valuation Advisors LLC, a New York-based adviser to investment funds.

“It all depends on how sticky those customer relationships are,” Robak said. “If they become subscribers forever and you can harvest those relationships for a long time, the money you spent up front is money well spent.”

Internet music service Pandora Media Inc. said yesterday that it plans to raise as much as $123.2 million in an IPO. At the midpoint of its range, the company would be valued at $1.27 billion, or 6.2 times revenue.

Shareholder Backers

The biggest shareholder is Green Media LLC, which is owned by co-founder Eric Lefkofsky and his wife, Elizabeth Kramer Lefkofsky. Green Media owns 21.6 percent of Class A shares and 41.7 percent of Class B stock.

Rounding out the list of top investors are Rugger Ventures LLC, owned by the family of Groupon co-founder Bradley Keywell, which holds 6.9 percent of Class A stock and 16.7 percent of Class B. New Enterprise Associates and Accel Partners own 14.7 percent and 5.6 percent of Class A shares, respectively.

Investors with less than 5 percent ownership include T. Rowe Price Group Inc., Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, is an investor in Andreessen Horowitz.

Groupon was valued at about $1.3 billion in April 2010, when it raised $135 million from Digital Sky and other investors. An investment of $950 million, completed in January, pegged Groupon’s worth at $4.75 billion.

Tim Wizba -

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siesta key window cleaning sarasota, floridaGoogle Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has announced that the search giant will launch its Groupon competitor on Wednesday, starting with Portland.

The news that Google is getting into the daily deals space is not a surprise. Google attempted and failed to acquire Groupon for $6 billion last year. A few months later, Mashable exclusively learned that Google was developing a Groupon competitor called Google Offers.

At the D9 Conference in Palos Verdes, California, Schmidt and Stephanie Tilenius, Google’s VP of commerce, demonstrated the company’s new product. It’s just like Groupon in that it provides users a daily deal from “thousands of merchant partners.” Google showed off a deal for $10 worth of Floyd’s coffee for $3 on stage.

The big selling point for Google Offers is that it will integrate seamlessly with Google Wallet, the company’s NFC-based payment system launching this summer. Instead of printing out a coupon or barcode, completed offers are put into a user’s Google Wallet, where they are automatically saved and redeemable. Eventually they will be utilized automatically through NFC.

Google Offers will be available Wednesday in Portland and eventually will roll out to New York, San Francisco and other cities during the summer.

Tim Wizba -

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According to the Local Offer Network report published on TechCrunch, sites like Groupon, LivingSocial and the rest of the group buying industry is expected to grow 138 percent this year to become a $2.7 billion industry. Other sources have reported that Groupon alone could bring in anywhere between $3 to $4 billion this year, up from $760 million last year.

Group buying sites are a win-win for both consumers and businesses. Consumers are always looking for great deals and businesses are looking for exposure to new customers.

For businesses, these sites give them instant exposure to a group buying site’s email marketing lists that continues to grow. If the deal is compelling enough, it could reach viral status as it will earn mentions across the social web and drive foot traffic or page views to your site.

Before you decide on running a group buying promotion, businesses should ask themselves these questions:

1. By running a group buying promotion, what is your business trying to accomplish?

2. If you do attract new customers, how can you turn them into regular customers?

3. Is your goal to drive foot traffic to your store? Are you trying to get more visits to your website?

4. How many deals are you trying to sell?

5. How much profit, if any, do you expect to make from this promotion? If you don’t make a profit, will you be okay with this?

6. How long is the deal valid for? (In some states, by law, these promotions are treated as gift cards so they will have no expiration date.)

The success of your group buying promotion will be determined by how you define your business’ success metrics. Has your business run a group buying promotion? Was it successful?

Tim Wizba -

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In the past few years, group buying sites have popularized in dozens of geographic markets worldwide, providing large discounts at local retailers and enabling consumers to indulge in luxuries that seem unattainable during a recession.

Group buying sites are internet-based websites that have become popular around the world. The online coupons themselves – available for different retail stores, restaurants and even spas – are only purchasable in certain geographic areas in the world, differing per website.

Each site has a different business plan. Some reward shoppers based on how many of their friends they can convince to sign up, while most coupons are inactive until a certain number of takers have bought them.

Also, each deal is restricted to some degree. Most have expiration dates 6 months out from the time of purchase and the number each person can purchase restricts some.

Group buying sites began to appear at the height of the recession. Since then sales have increased up to 60 percent in 2009 and 70 percent in 2010 according to reports by CBS news.

The average consumers spends $10 to $30 on a purchase from group buying sites and with each site having millions of subscribers, the industry revenue is skyrocketing.

“If I’m saving 50 percent to 80 percent on one item, that’s ‘X’ amount of money I can spend somewhere else,” said Anthony Teta, an avid Groupon fan and USF student. “You just have to decide if it is something you actually want, or if you only want it because it’s 70 percent off.”

These sites, such as Groupon.com and LivingSocial.com, offer daily discounts for restaurants, salons and spas, and other local retailers in the range of 50 percent to 75 percent off.

One year ago,Groupon had 1.5 million subscribers in America, or a 1-205 ratio, according to TheEquityKicker.com. Today, one in six Americans subscribe to Groupon.com. Similar sites have seen exponential growth over the last year as well.

“I was referred to group buying sites by multiple friends,” said Austin Karr, a New York City resident and former USF student who has been using Groupon for 3 years. “They make living in our economy and still enjoying usual luxuries a lot easier, and I can play tourist in my own city.”

Brendon Harbour, a sophomore at USF, used Groupon offers at restaurants and amusements rides while vacationing with his family in Las Vegas. Harbour said the discounts helped ease the financial load.

“Exploring group buying sites is a great way to find things to do in a given city and allows you to do them cheaply,” said Harbour.

People can be notified of each day’s deal by signing up for daily emails or checking Facebook or Twitter. Many of the group buying sites – specifically Groupon and LivingSocial – also have their own iPhone apps.

The majority of group buying sites cater to a larger audience and larger metropolitan areas, but some sites target a narrower audience.

“Other sites I’ve explored, like 8coupons, are limited in the coupons they offer and their market locations,” said Vargus. “Some are just simply more expensive, too.”

Campus Dibs, a Groupon for college students according to techcrunch.com, acknowledges the stereotypical college student with minimal funding. The site offers discounts on textbooks, school supplies and restaurants.

Gus Vargas, a computer engineering major at USF, uses Groupon and Campus Dibs frequently to find local deals. A classmate referred Vargas to both sites.

“The ease and accessibility of group buying sites – in addition to what they offer – caters to everyone,” said Vargas. “With most college students living on a budget, the idea of such large discounts on food and entertainment is especially appealing.”

The Top 8 sites, according to the annual revenue of each, include Groupon, LivingSocial, Tippr, 8Coupons, Buy With Me, Gilt City, Juice in the City and Crowdsavings.com.

Groupon-style group buying is popular in more than 15 countries and over 100 markets and has reached more than 35 million users.

Tim Wizba -

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Among the glut of daily deal sites that have emerged in Groupon’s wake, none is as serious a competitor to the group-buying site as LivingSocial.

Since its group deals launched in December 2009, the company has garnered a total of $232 million in funding — $175 million of it from Amazon.

That might seem like chump change compared to the $950 million Series D Groupon recently raised or its rumored $25 billion IPO-to-be. But according to this U.S.-market revenue data for both sites, compiled by LivingSocial, it’s been enough to seriously challenge Groupon.

The chart uses information that both group buying sites publish daily: the price of their deals and the number they sell. It seems LivingSocial’s market share has been steadily increasing since 2009. Currently, for every $10 of deals sold on either platform, $4 of them take place at LivingSocial.

If both companies continue to grow at their current rates, LivingSocial’s portion of sales will overtake Groupon’s in January 2012.

Groupon’s decreasing market share in U.S. markets does not necessarily indicate decreasing sales. A leaked internal memo suggests that Groupon’s annual revenue grew from $33 million in 2009 to $760 million in 2010. The change in market share has more to do with the fact that LivingSocial is just growing faster. It had 10 million subscribers in December, and more than 24 million subscribers three months later.

As the company starting with 100% market share in 2008, Groupon really only had one direction to go in once competitors got into the game. Fortunately for them, the entire market is exploding. A recent report from daily deal aggregator Local Offer Network says that group buying will grow 138% to $2.7 billion in 2011.

As the race intensifies in the daily deals space, Groupon still leads the way with nearly 24 million unique visitors, increasing 5.4 percent M-O-M and 655.8 percent Y-O-Y. While LivingSocial.com only boasts half as many unique visitors at this point (roughly 11.5 million), its rate of growth for the month, 32.7 percent, was six-times greater than Groupon’s, and its Y-O-Y growth rate stands at 418.4 percent. It is catching up quickly.

Tim Wizba -

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Location-based social network Loopt has partnered with deal-of-the-day juggernaut Groupon to integrate the new Groupon Now deals into Loopt’s mobile app.

Groupon Now launched Friday in Chicago, offering denizens of the Windy City tons of local $1 deals. The idea behind Groupon Now is to offer users real-time offers based on their location.

Businesses can use Groupon Now deals to target customers in their immediate area and can craft deals tailored to specific conditions — getting more customers on a slow day, selling some food before it spoils — rather than just making a typical, one-time offer.

That strategy is perfectly suited for Loopt, which launched its Loopt Reward Alerts at SXSW 2011. Loopt Rewards Alerts are designed to give users a real-time notification of deals taking place in their area.

Staring Friday, Loopt users in Chicago can also be alerted to Groupon Now deals taking place nearby. Deals will be added to the place pages in Loopt and will be visible when browsing through nearby locations. If Reward Alerts are enabled within Loopt (under the settings menu), users will get daily, location-specific Groupon Now deal alerts.

Groupon has alerts and deal markets built into its official Groupon apps for Android, iOS and the web, but the integration with Loopt is a nice touch. For Loopt, it adds a sense of utility to the program and makes it more of a one-stop shop for deals, location-based networking and finding places close by.

As Groupon Now launches in more cities, it will be interesting to see if Loopt or other location-based networks can leverage these deals to add more value to the checkin.

Tim Wizba -

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Beyond Commerce, Inc (OTCBB:BYOC), a multi-faceted media hub for high traffic web properties announced today the much-anticipated version 2.0 update of 10 Minute Website (www.10minutewebsite.com), a user-friendly website builder, email client, and SEO application. With 10 Minute Website tools, 1.0 users were able to quickly and painlessly create their own websites using the drag-and-drop/point-and-click patented CMS technology.

Version 2.0 advances those user-friendly features while increasing the robust functionalities of the original version. 10 Minute Website 2.0 requires no design experience to create a fully functional, powerfully programmed, and productively optimized site…and to do it in a matter of minutes.

One illustration of the numerous unique and automatic features of 10 Minute Website is Auto-SEO, a tool that universally searches the site content and automatically generates the most relevant and productive keywords. Search engine optimization is accomplished without the need for customer direction of the SEO tool, replacing the need for costly webmaster management.

Beyond Commerce Chairman and CEO Robert McNulty says, “The initial mission of 10 Minute Website was to provide small businesses a simple, functional, and affordable internet presence. Version 2.0 advances that mission to increase the functionalities for small to medium-sized businesses. But updates in our patented CMS supported by tools such as Auto-SEO increases both the simplicity and speed of creating a website, thus including individuals who may be creating websites for private rather than business purposes. Now families, churches, and communities of all kinds can have websites that are professional in their appearance and affordable.”

Tim Wizba -