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SXSW panel preview - “Group Deals” with LivingSocial’s Aaron Batalion
At this year’s South by Southwest Interactive, there are several panels about so-called “Social shopping,” which include not only Twitter- or Facebook-based deal-hunting services, but also daily deal sites like LivingSocial, Groupon and DealSwarm (which is owned by Cox Media Group, the American-Statesman’s parent company).
Aaron Batalion, the co-founder and chief technical officer of LivingSocial will be on a panel called “Group Deals: Where Ads Become Content,” 9:30 a.m. Sunday, March 13 at Ballroom F of the Austin Convention Center. We spoke to Batalion over e-mail in advance of the panel:
Aaron Batalion: While we don’t have any products to announce right now, we believe this space is just getting started. We’re already innovating outside of the traditional model into new verticals (like Family Edition [which it just launched in Austin today] and LivingSocial Escapes), new mobile offerings, and more ways that our consumers can explore their city and the world. The early adopters are crucial to helping us get those new products off the ground. Stay tuned.
It seems like LivingSocial and Groupon are leading the pack for online social shopping, but there are many, many smaller companies (they pitch us every day). Do you see things shaking out in the next year or two or consolidating? Is there a danger of too much Daily Deal overload as these services saturate the market?
In our minds, the sky is the limit for LivingSocial and our aggressive growth over the last two years is a testament to that. If you look at the space as a whole, about eight months ago there were two players who, when combined, held more than 90 percent of the market, today the same two players hold that same market share. That said, we’ve been taking U.S. market share pretty much every month for quite some time now and are on track to pass our competition in the U.S. in 2011.
Although it seems very easy to break into this industry, most people don’t realize the scale and technology it takes to be successful. At LivingSocial we have about 1,000 employees around the globe making sure that our nearly 200 markets are getting the best deals available — from sales people in every single market, to a clever editorial staff, to a great design team, an amazing development team and everyone who supports them.
We’ve got our sights on doubling our markets by the end of the year and growing our staff as well. By keeping true to our mission of offering the best, most unique experiences at a value, we’ll meet — if not exceed — our goals.
The recent Amazon/Living Social $20 for $10 deal got a lot of attention and seemed to do very well. Was that a turning point for LivingSocial?
The Amazon deal was indeed recordbreaking. We believe no single product has had more sales in a single day on the web. Ever. We sold over 1.1 million vouchers and reached a rate of 80 purchases per second. Already over 85 percent have been redeemed.
I think it was one in a series of turning points we’ve had over the past few months including: growing from 33 people to 1,000 in 12 months, increasing markets from six to nearly 200 in 12 months, doubling our global footprint in January 2011 and adding 5 million new subscribers in the month of January alone.
Your SXSW panel is about how these kinds of services will affect local publishers and advertising. Do you think services like LivingSocial have done a good job complementing local advertising or should publishers consider you guys a threat? Will deal sites decimate display advertising the way Craigslist did to classifieds?
LivingSocial offers local merchants a brand new way to market their businesses. It’s a no-money-down method to bring new and loyal customers through your doors. We’ve been so successful at delivering new customers that 97 percent of our merchants would run with us again so you can’t deny the success of the platform. That said, I think every business needs to find the marketing mix that is right for them.
What kinds of things are you looking forward to at SXSW and do you have any tips for surviving or getting the most out of the fest?
I’m most looking forward to meeting passionate people building amazing products. The sessions, hallway conversations, and happy hours of SXSW are amazing and incredibly energizing. And if you can make it out to Salt Lick BBQ, you won’t be let down!
Updated at 12 p.m. to replace mug shot. LivingSocial sent us the wrong image of Aaron Batalion initially.
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