O'Shaughnessy envisions a future where LivingSocial becomes an online seller of goods and services beyond just its daily deals.
The story points out that Amazon (a LivingSocial investor) is seeing tremendous growth outside of its books, movie and music sales. Could Living Social soon become a competitor in this space...or a partner?
With free and geo-targeted "special offer" sites like Foursquare starting to gain some momentum as a self managed retail resource, and QR codes providing greater reach for retailers hoping to promote discounts at little to no cost, perhaps O'Shaughnessy is weighing a shift in LivingSocial's business model more as a mitigation strategy than a growth opportunity.
There are a growing number of LivingSocial competitors popping up every day with new and unique competitive advantages that chip away at the huge market share that LivingSocial and Groupon now control. Take recently launched Recoup for example. Recoup has a daily deal model similar to LivingSocial's but with a more philanthropic mission. Every purchase made on Recoup benefits a charitable agency of the consumer's choice. The businesses that are selling on Recoup can also contribute a portion of each sale to a charitable cause. Additionally, Recoup doesn't charge businesses up front unlike LivingSocial and Groupon. In today's very socially conscious consumer culture and skeptical business culture, Recoup may be well positioned to take a measurable bite out of its high priced competitors.O'Shaughnessy's comments are interesting. What will be even more interesting is what is to follow.
