groupon

Rob Jaffe was 47 and working in advertising on a product he described as a hard sell. He was looking for something new, when his sister forwarded him a “deal of the day” e-mail and suggested he find a way to get involved in this new concept. Deal of the day sites like Groupon and Living Social, now a major trend, negotiate special rates with businesses in exchange for marketing their service or product to an opt-in database of users. Users are incentivized to spread the word through social networking by requiring a minimum number of buyers for each deal to activate, and the site splits the proceeds with the vendor.