Forget e-mail: LivingSocial takes to the airwaves
The daily-deals site will take its bargains to 500 Clear Channel radio stations around the U.S.
To date, daily-deal sites have relied primarily on e-mail to reach bargain hunters. Now LivingSocial has inked a deal with Clear Channel to broadcast those deals to a much larger audience.
The companies said today that LivingSocial will provide its discount offers to listeners of more than 500 Clear Channel radio stations in 90 cities around the U.S. starting October 24. All told, LivingSocial's deals will be showcased to as many as 80 million listeners each week, Clear Channel said.
Several times throughout the day, on-air personalities at Clear Channel stations will announce the day's local deal for their local markets. In addition, Clear Channel says that the deals will be available on its radio stations' Web sites to help listeners track down details of an offer.
The Clear Channel deal is a clear win for LivingSocial. The daily-deals provider says that it has over 46 million members worldwide and offers deals in 603 markets. With Clear Channel's help, its potential reach has nearly doubled.
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But there's no telling if the deal--terms of which weren't disclosed--will bolster LivingSocial's financials. It remains unclear whether daily-deal provider are--or are even capable of--turning a profit. Groupon, for example, lost $390 million last year on revenue of just $313 million, according to an Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Closely held LivingSocial doesn't disclose its financials. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that LivingSocial was eying a $1 billion IPO based on a valuation of between $10 billion and $15 billion. The company, however, has neither confirmed that report nor filed for an initial offering.