The flash deals market is under pressure - share price of market leader Groupon dropped by 70% compared to the value at the time of its IPO.
Meanwhile, second largest group deals portal LivingSocial's valuation has dropped from $4.5 billion to $1.5 billion.
But while all these developments are happening at a global scale, there are some positive signs that all is not lost in the Asian flash deals sector.
Deal.com.sg, one of the largest daily deal sites in Singapore, has announced its second physical collection point at High Street Center in downtown Singapore. The first was opened at King George’s Avenue.
Physical collection points were pioneered, of course, by Groupon in June 2012, also in Singapore.
Meanwhile, Deal.com.sg also acquired an online food delivery service portal Room Service Deliveries in October 2012.
To add spice to the deals sector in Asia, China's biggest search engine Baidu is venturing into flash deals business. The new deals site serves deals in Beijing, albeit with limited categories at launch.
Some deal companies are slowly changing their business model, too. Bolstering its "Dealivery" Room Service Deliveries acquisition, Deal.com.sg is now planning to be the biggest food delivery service in Southeast Asia.
Groupon in Indonesia operates an online retail store featuring its own inventory.
But, not everything is looking positive in the deals market in Asia. There were many players that went out of business, including 24Quan, once one of the top five group deal sites in China. 24Quan suspended its business in October 2012 and shut its website in January 2013.
But, according to the Chinese deals aggregator Dataotuan,
- Alibaba's Juhuasuan leads the deal market in China with 47.8% share, followed by Meituan and Dianping at 13.1% and 8.6% share respectively.
- Top five players have ample scope for improvement.
- In 2012, the four daily deal indicators - number of deals launched; average price of deal; number of products sold per deal; and average revenue per deal - have all increased gradually each quarter.
- Revenue from travel deals was over RMB 2 billion, this is 9.6% of total deal revenue in 2012.
- Dining deals accounted for 35.4% of the overall deals and remains as the most popular category.