With a man-in-the-middle between product and service providers, both later are at a loss. Customers could get a higher discount, while the providers could make (more) profits. Exposure is overrated imho with groupon's army of clones, as the crowd is nomadic and isn't loyal. Moreover it may bend perceptions and expectations for the future.

Long term effect of these deals are none to negative, as they may easily cannibalize regular business. Volumes of customers in the services business essentially requires time. That's obvious for the article above where costs of paralel servicing are very high (other helicopters).

Shameless self-promotion: our startup is changing that by removing the intermediary and seller fees with a simple widget for web shops. Unlike others with restricted applications in services, we've made it universally applicable to anything that sells online and offline, above $30 most likely. It's meant to work as sister button to the Add to Cart - _Join Group Buy_.

It is more than a marketing/advertising tool. It is a new way of seeing shopping.

While the exposure comes through the clever system of incentives, we're working on much more by opening the deals information to the world in real time.

http://www.syncfu.com