Is LivingSocial Beating Google in the Daily Deal Market?

On September 5, LivingSocial, which is partly owned by Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) broke daily deal records by selling 1.5 million 50 percent discounted $10 Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) virtual gift cards. This is big news in the daily deal space, as competitor Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) still suffers after its overhyped IPO.

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Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) entered the daily deal space with Google Offers, which sought market share by partnering with dozens of smaller and local deal providers. Google Offers hasn’t seen much success, and has reportedly laid off a large number of employees at German startup DailyDeal, which it bought last year for $114. Restructuring may suggest that the deal site is suffering, but a leaner set up could keep the company floating through the dubious market.

The ins and outs of the daily deal industry have largely eluded everybody who enters the game. With Groupon in the tank and LivingSocial setting records, Google Offers will likely stay quiet for a while.

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