Facebook Deals Takes On Groupon and Co.

No big surprise here, but Facebook has now gotten into the daily deals business with the new Facebook Deals, or Social Deals, which will enable users, in a few test cities for now, to get access to special deals, aimed at groups, at least for now.

Facebook's new Deals, not to be confused with the old Deals product which launched last summer which is being renamed Check-in Deals, is similar to what sites like Groupon, LivingSocial and the myriad of clones offer.

Users in the cities it's launching now in the US, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco, have been able to sign up since March.

If they have, they will start receiving deals from Facebook via email, the traditional method, but also via Facebook itself.

"You can receive Facebook deals via e-mail," Emily White, Facebook's director of local, explained. "But if there is a deal that is good for you, it will likely show up in your news feed at some point in the day."

The deals may show up in ads on Facebook as well, if the site determines they may be relevant to you. Needless to say, if deals are available in your city you'll probably start seeing them one way or another.

Despite the common methods of distribution and other similarities, Facebook Deals have some distinct differences and advantages, some of which will be hard if not impossible for the likes of Groupon to overcome.

At least at first, deals via Facebook will be aimed at groups of friends and discounts, surprisingly, are not emphasized. Instead the focus is on getting more people to band together and pay for a special offer.

Of course, if you do sign up for a deal it will show up on your friends' news feeds. You can also 'like' a deal without actually buying it.

One thing that could really set up Facebook Deals as the platform to use is the fact that it may be offered for free, at no costs to merchants. Facebook can do this because it doesn't depend on this revenue to survive, but also because it can make its money via Facebook Credits which can be used to buy into a deal.

"It is first time it has been used to purchase a voucher that is redeemable for real goods," Facebook added. Users will be able to pay via credit cards as well, but if they choose Credits, Facebook will get to keep part of that. However, it may not be 30 percent like it does for in-app transactions on the site using Credits.

UPDATE: It's now official.