14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook has finally expanded its Deals product to Europe, after launching in the US last summer. Facebook Deals is tied into Places and enables users to get discounts or other special offers when they 'check in' at various businesses, stores, restaurants and so on.
Facebook rolled out the service with a big marketing push and there are several big offers via Deals, at least for today, including a 20 percent discount on a Mazda MX 5, as well as prizes at certain locations.
Facebook Deals are linked to Places and the Facebook mobile apps. Places nearby that have a 'deal' will be highlighted in the app. Checking in at the location, which will show up on your activity stream, will enable you to benefit from the deal.
There are several types of Facebook deals, individual deals like giveaways or discounts, loyalty deals in which clients can accumulate points for a discount when reaching a threshold, friend deals in which you get discounts for bringing your friends and checking in with them and, finally, charity deals.
Facebook Deals is now live in Europe in several countries, UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain. It remains to be seen how popular the product will prove, but with Facebook's might behind it, it should have a good chance at becoming widely used.
Facebook has partnered with several big name companies for the launch, early adopters can check in for free coffee at Starbucks, buy new phones via O2 and many other things.
The product should benefit from the fact that there aren't any big alternatives to Facebook's product at this point. Foursquare is still trying to start getting some partnerships with companies in Europe and with Facebook beating it to the market, it may have an uphill battle simply because of the social network's scale.
Of course, there's also no guarantee that Facebook Deals will prove incredibly successful even with all of the company's efforts.