Aiming to shore up its own daily deals service, Google is acquiring German site DailyDeal.
The site offers Groupon-style daily deals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with plans to expand into more European countries.
It was founded two years ago by brothers Fabian and Ferry Heilemann, who will both stay on board.
“Since then, we have seen tremendous growth, as people throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland have used DailyDeal to find local deals on their favorite restaurants, travel destinations, entertainment venues and retail outlets,” they say on the company website.
http://dailydeal.de/en
“By combining our expertise with the Offers team at Google, we hope to expand our efforts to provide even greater deals to consumers.”
Google’s own Google Offers are currently available only in North America, and the acquisition will help the company in its stated aim of broadening its services into Europe.
It’s the latest in a series of acquisitions designed to help Google see off competition from Groupon, which turned down a $6 billion offer from Google last year.
It recently snapped up consumer rating system Zagat, as well as The Dealmap and Zave Networks.
Even on its home turf, though, Google Offers isn’t doing terribly well, according to industry analyst Ypit. The company says that by its third month of operation, sales were declining in New York, San Francisco and Portland.
