The Wall Street Journal reported today that Facebook will soon start testing a local deals page in several markets, including Dallas, Atlanta, Austin, San Francisco and San Diego. We recently shared how individual businesses are able to offer specials to people checking in at those specific businesses locations. Now Facebook wants to expand those local deal offerings across entire communities.
This new experiment in local deals will allow Facebook users to purchase deals online and share those deals and purchases with their friends. This could be huge. Since the average Facebook user has over 130 friends, the marketing potential of participating in such a program could dwarf the success of Groupon and other local social shopping sites.
One of the unanswered questions that loom large is whether Facebook purchases may be made in real dollars or Facebook’s virtual currency that has powered many internal applications for years. If Facebook requires their virtual currency, it will soon become very very real. Stay tuned for updates….
