The online business of serving up daily deals has attracted millions of dollars in venture capital and spurred dozens of clones of market leaders Groupon Inc. and LivingSocial Inc. Now the industry is starting to shake out, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Nearly one-third of all daily-deal sites nationwide—or 170 of 530—have shut down or been sold so far this year, according to daily-deal-site aggregator Yipit.com, including sites with names such as Scoop St. and RelishNYC. Even big operations such as Facebook Inc. and Yelp Inc. that could capitalize on their large audiences to build a daily-deals business have recently pulled back on the service.
Read more at WSJ.com. (Subscription required.)