Google Introduces Wallet and More Deals

Michael Garrity — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Monday was a big day for Google, with the company purchasing the aptly named German daily deals site DailyDeal, as well as rolling out Google Wallet.

The purchase of DailyDeal marks their second big daily deal site buyout in the last two months, with the first being their acquisition of Dealmap.

DailyDeal was started in late 2009, but showed rapid growth with a reported 252,000 vouchers sold in the first quarter of 2011. They've also gone from just two employees to around 200 as of quarter two of this year.

A German newspaper is reporting that the purchase cost Google somewhere between $150 million and $200 million.

It's likely that Google procured DailyDeal as another method of kickstarting its slow-growing daily deal service Google Offers, which saw a steep revenue decline between the months of July and August.

Having more daily deals services in its back pocket should help Google to round out the launch of Google Wallet, the NFC-based mobile payment service. The application will be available to owners of the Sprint Nexus S Android phone and, with the initial rollout, will only be applicable for users who have PayPass-enabled Citi MasterCards.

'Net Features : DailyDeal

Google Introduces Wallet and More Deals