The Eye on The Rabbit

AOL’s Patch Partners with Amex’s Serve to Offer Groupon-Like Service

Under the new partnership, Serve will power the Patch Deals platform, which will offer Groupon-style users deals and discounts, on the American Express network. Patch Deals, like Groupon and Living Social, is a group-buying deals program that targets local communities. Users sign up for free to receive email alerts from businesses and can then click on any deal interests them.

There is a growing number of these services, including the recently launched Google Offers. While less known than Groupon or LivingSocial, a differentiator for Patch Deals may be the benefit to the merchants.  On Patch, merchants can list their deals for free, but will not have to share as high a percentage of revenue as with Groupon or Living Social.

Google Launches Google Offers

Back in December 2010, Google tried to purchase Groupon for around $6 billion…unsuccessfully.  Today they launched Google Offers, a Groupon-like service. Starting Portland, there are plans to expand to New York and San Francisco later this summer.  Other cities to come.

What sets Google Offers apart from other similar service?  Integration with Google Wallet, the new mobile payments system the company unveiled last week. Instead of bringing a coupon into a business, consumers will just have to bring their (Android, NFC-capable) phones.