LiveDeal.com Launches with Restaurant Deals in 3 Cities

Billed as “the world’s first deal engine,” LiveDeal.com launched late last year in three cities with a focus on the industry. Residents of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco now have access to deals from around 1,000 restaurants in real-time compared to just 30 restaurants at a time on its main competitor Groupon, according to a statement released by the company.

San Diego locals, for example, can redeem a coupon for free dessert from Baltimore Snowball or for 25 percent off their bill at Westside Café, but with just two or three hours to do so before those deals are replaced by new ones. While from a consumer point-of-view, this doesn’t sound much different from Groupon or LivingSocial (News - Alert), restaurant owners might appreciate the control they have over how their deals are promoted. They have access to an interface that allows them to instantly create deals and either publish them immediately or pre-schedule them for a later time or date. They also have control over how many coupons they offer, how long the deal lasts and what days and times they want them to run. Restaurant owners can also manage their deals depending on how slow or busy their business is performing at a particular time.

According to CEO Jon Isaac, LiveDeal.com won’t just stop at restaurants, but has its sights set on offering deals on sporting events, hotels, casinos, entertainment venues and more. The company has also announced that it will release a LiveDeal mobile app for both Apple (News - Alert) and Android devices.

“With Apple iOS and Android representing the vast majority of all mobile users, our in-house app development and rollout is strategic as most of our user base are mobile users who spend more time on mobile than on Web and are more likely to act on a deal on their mobile device, rather than on the Web,” he said. “We are excited to complement our Web offering with a compelling app experience which we believe will further drive brand allegiance and uptake of our livedeal.com solution.”

To learn more about mobile commerce and how companies of all kinds are getting involved, check out the 2014 Mobile Payments Conference, taking place this week at the Miami Beach Convention Center, collocated with ITEXPO (News - Alert) in Miami, Fla.