'Group buying' goes viral

New concept of Marketing

You know an idea has arrived when it leads to ‘me-too’ products that turn it into a full-fledged industry. eBay did it with online auctions and Facebook did it with social networking. And now, sites like Snapdeal, Grabbon, Taggle, DealsAndYou are trying to popularise the concept of ‘group buying’ online.
Group buying works like cooperatives, where a large number of people buy from a merchant. The group-buying site, after negotiating directly with merchants, selects and advertises an offer for a day to its subscribers — typically a hotel stay, a restaurant booking, an excursion or a 'spa day' at an attractive, one-off price. The deal is only available for a short time, often just one day.