Group buying websites... what are they all about?

While Group on may be the leader of the "group buying" concept on the web, it is now a growing trend amongst Egyptian web users. Lots of websites have recently emerged offering such a service to users following the success of Group on. But what is group buying anyway?

The concept is very simple, a website partners up with a business -let's say a restaurant for example- to offer the website's customers a tremendous discount on a service or a product offered by that business. by gathering as much customers as possible to buy that deal, the business benefits by getting more customers and of course the website builds a reputation of being able to get more deals. So the business gets more customers, the website grows and deals with more partners and the users benefit from exceptional discounts.

Now, I'm going to run you down through three of the most popular group buying websites amongst Egyptian users.

First off is Cobone

 Launching earlier this year for Cairo residents, Cobone is an online venture owned by Jabbar Online Group. The e-business, has been popular in various Arab cities before launching in Cairo and has different deals for each city. Though, it's still relatively new in Cairo, it is showing considerable potential with its diverse deals. It's payment systems are also quite fascinating too, you can pay through a variety of online accounts like paypal, cashu or one card, but I doubt a lot of Egyptians have any of those accounts, so I think you're good to go with your credit or debit card. One of the great features of Cobone and what really distinguishes it from competition is Destinations. By clicking on this Destinations tab, you will be taken to a whole cobone website dedicated to travel offers, which encompasses a wide range of offers from hotels in different cities around the world.

Next up is Offerna

This is the oldest e-business that offers a group buying service to Egyptian users. It behaves exactly like any other group buying website, but what really gives this website an edge is the experience, they've been doing this for quite some time now so it's most likely that you will find an offer that pleases you given their wide range of offers. Offerna also has an Arabic version of their website, which may be appealing to some users. What makes Offerna stand out then, you ask? It's definitely being available for Alexandria residents. Though this is a step that other group buying websites may jump to eventually, it is currently helping Offerna reach out to a wider audience.

And last off is Dare'n'Deal

Dare N' Deal is the youngest of the the three e-businesses, launching only a few months back. The website offers some great deals and does show that it is no easy competitor. Dare'n'Deal are apparently having a boom in their customer base and are hiring more call center employees according to them, so with that current rate of growth, I think it won't be long before we see it launch in other cities in Egypt and maybe across the Arab World

I think it all boils down to how great the offers are and how frequent are new ones offered, as long as those two criteria are fulfilled any group buying website can succeed and in the end everybody wins.

Last piece of advice to all of you interested in such a service is to register your e-mail at each of these websites and they will send you their offers right to your inbox. As far as I'm concerned all three of them offer great service based on the growing numbers of customers that they are serving, but I will sure let you know about the quality of their services once I get to deal with all of them.