14 DAY TRIAL // Groupon rejected Google's $6 billion offer and is instead looking at an IPO. Many speculated that Google would not be giving up on the potentially very lucrative group buy space and indeed that is the case, the company is working on its own very similar product, which is now in testing, Google Offers.
Mashable managed to get a hold of some presentation documents showcasing the product for potential customers. Google later confirmed that Offers is indeed real and it is now in the early testing stages with some small businesses.
"Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program," Google said in a statement.
"This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways. We do not have more details to share at this time, but will keep you posted," it added.
The Google documents describe a product that is very similar to Groupon, and the myriad of Groupon clones out there. Small businesses create an offer and submit it to Google.
Google has a team of writers to describe the deal and the company will run it in Offers when it deems appropriate. Users subscribe to Offers via email and will get a daily deal in their inboxes.
Google collects all the money and then sends it to the business, after taking its cut, within three days. Apparently, Google will be keeping 20 percent of the businesses cut for 60 days to cover any possible refunds.
From the material, there doesn't seem to be a minimum purchases requirement, like on Groupon, though apparently, that will be the case. Google is only starting to reach out to businesses, but it seems to be moving fast so Offers may be getting an official launch in the next few months.