Battle of the Groupon Copycats

anything.lk appears to be winning the battle of the Groupon copycats in Sri Lanka.  The contenders are anything.lk, maradeals.lk & smartpola.lk

Looks like anything.lk has gotten off to quite the start after partnering with the Thai group.  One of my friends said that the site has been around for some time but only recently took off after the sponsorship.  They have a well designed site and if the data on the site is accurate, looks like they are doing quite well.  Most of the deals have many orders with some even getting sold out.  they have also been on a marketing rampage as I have heard it on the radio many times.

In contrast maradeals.lk seems to be struggling.  They do not have as many deals as anything.lk. The deals are also less appealing to the majority of the public from my opinion.  They also have a nice website.  One main visible difference is that users are allowed to comment on deals so it can be more of a social exeperience.  It also looks like they are giving points for promoting their deals on social websites.  I have heard a couple of advertisements for it also on radio.

The smartpola.lk site seems to be a bit dull compared to the other too.  They also only have one deal at a time.  I don't think the design of the site as inviting as it's competitors.  Their deals also do not look too relevant.  They have had some book deals, etc.

Though all three sites are trying to get on the Groupon bandwagon, only smartpola.lk appears to be following the actual Groupon deals model.  In Groupon, a certain number of orders have to be placed for the deal to be active.  For example, if only one person purchases a deal, it might be not valid.  However, if 25 people (or whatever the minium) number is purchased, then it is a vlaid deal.

Though the Groupon idea is cool, I have read in many articles that  the vendors do not really benefit.  They have to sell way below their break event point to give deals that are attractive on Groupon.  Also, Groupon keeps most of the earnings.  If that is the case, I am not sure why they take part.  If most vendors refuse to go with Groupon then Groupon would either go out of business or adjust the business model to make everybody happy.  Maybe the vendors are banking on getting more exposure by being featured on Groupon

Despite the huge growth in earnings, Groupon is actually operating at a loss.  So who knows when this Groupon ride will end...   In Sri Lanka however, everybody seems to be talking about anything.lk right now...