As of March 14, 2011 Facebook announced it will provide a Groupon-like service in limited areas such as San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas, Atlanta, and Austin. Facebook claims that the services will not provide the same across the board experience in the consumer industry, but provide dine out, concert, and outdoor discounted services. Will this make an impact on Groupon and other discount services like Living Social?

Of course it will affect other companies. With Facebook on the brink of reaching 600 million users, they definitely have the market. They will also make leaps and bounds if the decide to use ad targeting as a way to reach Facebook users. Following Google’s and Microsoft’s lead, Facebook is after the ever-ending trend of local searching and local promotion. The key for Facebook’s Groupon-like service to work lies in Facebook Places and how they further integrate it into our mobile daily use. With roughly +30% of people logging on through a mobile device can drastically change the landscape and popularity of ‘places’. BUT A recent comparison has shown 30% of people are aware of Foursquare to a dismal 5% for Facebook places. Is a Groupon-like service enough to keep Facebook places surfaced? This could be an answer for the partners Plum District, Zozi, and Open Table that are actively involved with Facebook for the Groupon-like service. The early adopters of these other companies will most likely follow, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they will transition well with other people and other companies.

There are so many minute factors that affect how people will treat this service. We need to factor in mobile conversions of products and services with the overall use of ‘places’. The initial point of action is when a user checks in; a deal pertaining to their region will show up. Now with the underwhelming amount of people actually participating, I see no change in threshold of market share, just another avenue to get an ad out. Groupon and other consumer discount services should have nothing to worry about unless we see an unusual spike in Facebook Places (not likely anytime soon).