14 DAY TRIAL // Google Offers, the company's answer to Groupon and one way it's going to make money from the upcoming Google Wallet, is launching its first offer in Portland, Oregon. The deals service was announced more than a month ago and it had been rumored before that. While the site has been live since the announcement, the first offer will be reaching subscribers later today.
"Portlanders know how to mix the urban (killer coffee, music and art) and the small-town (easy walking, biking and socializing)... That’s why, when we started planning the Google Offers beta, we knew Portland was the ideal place to get it all kicked off," Kyle Harrison, Product Manager for Google Offers, announced.
Well, that and the fact that Google has been testing several location and local services there already, Hotpot started in Portland as well and the company's on the spot team has been spearheading Google's efforts in this area by getting involved with the local small businesses.
"Our first Google Offer will be from beloved local java shop Floyd’s Coffee. Husband-and-wife team Jack Inglis and Cris Chapman opened Floyd’s seven years ago, offering up espresso, coffee, breakfast burritos and more," Google explained.
The actual deal is nothing spectacular, not that it has to be, you get $10 worth of coffee for just $3. Subscribers from Portland will be receiving the offer in their email inboxes today.
It's a fairly standard affair, Google Offers is pretty much on par with what Groupon and several others already offer, subscribers will get deals with discounts of 50 percent of more.
One difference is that there is no minimum limit of people wanting the deal for it to activate. The company will take a smaller cut as well.
Google will expand the service to other cities soon, New York and San Francisco are next. Since it will be linked to Google Wallet, the company is limiting itself to places the mobile payments system is going live as well and also to places where it already has teams working with local businesses.