Back in mid October I wrote about GroupBuying.com up for auction at T.R.A.F.F.I.C Miami with a reserve range of $100,000+ . Although group buying is one of the hottest industries right now, the domain name didn’t sell at auction.
While groupbuying.com certainly describes its industry, the phrase “group buying” is not something you would expect consumers to search on when seeking out bargains and deals online.
According to Goolge’s AdWords: Keyword tool, the exact monthly search volume [globally] for the keywords ‘group buying’ was less than 3,000 searches. Meanwhile ‘deal of the day’ had over 40,000 searches in the same timeframe, ‘daily deals’ had 27,100 searches and ‘hot deals’ raked in over 90,000 searches globally.
The group buying industry is abuzz with speculation that Google may buy GroupOn, the Chicago-based daily deal web site that launched in late 2008 – and is valued over $3 billion.
But the news most likely won’t help the chances of groupbuying.com selling for a six-figure asking price, but other relevant domain names in the ‘daily deal’ space could certainly benefit.
While ‘group buying’ is a hot buzzword, it’s not the case with consumers.
If you haven’t noticed by now, the Group Buying industry is continuing to heat up – and with the local city focus and websites with less-than-premium domain names ringing up business, it’s an online industry that offers cheap entry to the smaller companies and individuals trying to get a piece of the pie.
TownHog.com was registered in October 2009. In April, the website had nearly 20,000 visitors according to Compete.
I’m not here to tell you it’s easy to build or maintain a website, or even cheap, but for some evidence of the claim that the online group-buying business can attract the startup masses, see some of these recent and past highlights.
Group Buying Startups using Hand-registered domains – and being successful
For startups on a budget, the availability of category-killing domain names isn’t plentiful, so companies are turning to hand-registering domain names for their online businesses. It’s alot easier to not get swept up in having-to-own a premium .com, especially when competition in the Group Buying industry is still relatively small.
The number of group buying sites offering local deals as of June, was about 80 websites. Kevin Ham, who owns some of the best domain names in the world, even launched his own group buying startup using GoodNews.com. Now, take a look at the names other companies are using to enter the market with:
CrowdSavings.com registered in July 2009 recently hit 12,000 visitors per month.
There are plenty of group buying websites who plucked their hand registered domain names in the past year, here are just a few.
LocalGroupDeals.com was registered in october 2009.
GetGrouby.com was created in March 2010.
Youvegottagetit.com registered in April 2009.
WordPress Developers busy developing Group Buying Themes and Plug-ins?
Surprisingly, there still doesn’t appear to be any WordPress themes available yet to help webmasters launch their own group buying websites quickly. But plans are in the works, with people already posting projects online to have developers build plug ins and more that mimic sites like LivingSocial.
As most of you know the “Group Buy” craze has caught on like wildfire. Along with the craze comes countless clones of both groupon and livingsocial. Instead of trying to create our own site we want to help others buy providing “Group Buy Script” available for purchase.
Right now we are seeking a programmer who is well versed in WordPress. Ideally we would like for you to develop a WordPress plugin which is simple for someone to enable. The plugin should have all the features of a site like group and live social.
China Group Buying Sites Gaining Steam
An article that appeared in Information Week, quoted people, including one person who happens to be involved in the group buying business.
The manager of Chinese website Fenpier.com, Ye Fei, said that it costs around $737 a month to run one of the sites, with about two-fifths going toward renting a server and the rest to promote and run the Web site. Ye added that manpower requirements are low, especially in the early stages. “As far as I know, there are some group-buying sites that are being run by just one person,” Ye said.
The low entry barriers and relatively simple business model have led to a large number of competing sites. In China alone there are already more than 300. Small sites are able to thrive by focusing on one area. In large cities, successful sites usually have different offers for various neighborhoods.
Group buying is of course a hot market in 2010 - with companies like LivingSocial and GroupOn vying to stay on top, despite dozens of companies launching each week.
So you own a geo domain and are pressing ahead with development. So why not add Group Buying as a service on your web site? While loads of group buying start ups are showing up online, those companies and individuals who own built out geo domains can benefit from offering deails in the city or state of their geo domain.
Before Kevin Ham goes countrywide in Canada with his own group buying venture GoodNews.com, he looks to be focusing solely on Vancouver before expanding into other major cities across Canada.
And it makes sense.
Kevin Ham owns and operates Vancouver.com.
Kevin Ham might be the first to integrate group buying and geo domains
Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in Western Canada according to Wikipedia, ranking third largest in the country. Based on the 2006 census Vancouver had a population of 578,041.
There are deals to be made, especially group buying deals.
And it won’t be long before companies like GroupOn and LivingSocial likely partner up with owners of geo domains that are built out.
Yipit, another group buying startup, actually aggregates daily deals already from services like Groupon, LivingSocial, Scoop St, HomeRun (and about 90 others).
So whether you partner up with a group buying service like GroupOn, it might even be better to take Kevin Ham’s approach — and do-it-yourself.
Group Buying websites like GroupOn allow users to find local deals, but offers still aren't available in every city or town. Grooster is currently focusing on Vancouver, with plans to branch out to Calgary before going nation wide in Canada.
Domain Guru turned Developer Kevin Ham who has been launching a number of businesses on his domain names like Vancouver.com and BlackFriday.com, has some competition for his latest group-buying venture, GoodNews.com — and the competition is coming right out his his home city of Vancouver.
The site is Grooster.com started by a Vancouver mother, Lesel Radage, who plans to take on the big players in the Group Buying space.
In an interview that appeared in the Vancouver Sun, Lesel told the reporter about her Group Buying venture:
It’s such an interesting space, the startup costs are relatively low,” said Radage, who started Grooster with her childhood friend and university roommate Trish Mandryk. “Our competitive advantage we think is being local; that is pretty important.”
The Vancouver Sun has also has a funny reference to a parody website called Nopuorg (Groupon spelled Backwards), for those of you tired of the group buying craze.
And if all that consumerism gets a bit much for you, check out Nopuorg, a parody (Groupon spelled backwards) with such tongue-in-cheek offerings as $15 for $30 worth of ballet, with the review: “Some people love The Ballet. They should marry it.”
Will Local Group Buying websites and domain names, trend up?
While Group Buying websites, take on city by city across the country and the world, could local group buying websites dedicated specifically to one local area, be the beginning of another trend?
There are a number of domain names available in this market (for example, VancouverDailyBargains.com), but before you leap in and buy up a bunch of local “Group Buying” related domains as an investment, you will likely be better off if you have a plan for an actual website, since city + groupbuying domains are widely available.
For fun, we registered LocalGroupBuying.com while writing up this story today, one of just a handful of names hand registered here at Fusible in recent months.
Recently, group buying type domain names have been selling in the aftermarket like DailyBargains.com ($10,500) and MassBuy.com ($2,700). HomeRun.com sold for $130,000. Though the name doesn’t ring of group buying, HomeRunDelivers.com which launched a group buying website picked up the name to strengthen its brand.
Surprisingly, there doesn’t appear to be any WordPress themes available yet to help webmasters launch their own group buying websites quickly.
If you want to learn from the best in the domain industry, Kevin Ham is one of the top.
The chance to learn from the best in the Domain Industry while getting paid doesn’t come along that often, so imagine if you had the opportunity to work for Kevin Ham while being paid a competitive salary, getting profit sharing and benefits, and working in a really sweet office in downtown Vancouver.
Now on the verge of officially launching his next biggest venture with GoodNews.com (a Group Buying website), Kevin Ham has launched an aggressive hiring campaign seeking a Marketing Director, Lead Designer, Lead Web Developer, QA Analyst, and web developers at all levels.
The Marketing Director, will be part of the Exec team and will report directly into the Chief Operating Officer. Ideal candidates for these jobs should have social media and startup experience, according to the Desired Skills listed.
About Good News
Welcome to GoodNews.com where we believe that social commerce can be done better and with positive impact on our community. GoodNews.com is the new online destination for social commerce utilizing local deals and group discounts with a percentage of proceeds donated to non-profit partner organizations. We have daily deals in Vancouver, BC Canada, and will be expanding rapidly in domestic and international markets. Backed by our parent company, a Top 100 web network that enjoys vast Internet exposure, we are a fun, well-funded and fast-growing organization headquartered in downtown Vancouver merging meaningful giving with commerce and community – now that’s Good News!
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