Is it Now Facebook v Google v Groupon?

It seems that the powers that be at Facebook have decided that anything Google can do they can do better, with the social networking website outlining plans to enter into the emerging social buying market.

Earlier this month, Google revealed that it was set to go head-to-head with Groupon, the most successful firm in the sector, and now it looks like Facebook has decided to turn proceedings into what wrestling fans would probably call a triple threat match.

It’s a move that certainly seems to make sense – social buying is all about linking people with similar tastes and then getting them to buy into a special offer with a local company. As anyone who has used Facebook will know, the format of the site invites people to submit as much information as they want, so from a data and user point of view Mark Zuckerburg’s firm certainly seems to have a solid base.

People seem to like it too. Forbes recently reported that Deb Liu, Facebook’s head of commerce product marketing, had revealed that half of test users chose to share news of a purchase with friends via their news feeds.
That said, the “Buy With Friends” feature won’t start life as a direct competitor to Groupon. Instead, it will focus on social gaming and virtual goods via the credits system which is to be introduced soon. Still it seems unthinkable that, if it proved to be a success, Facebook wouldn’t expand it to include real-life goods and services.

However, the move into full on social buying isn’t guaranteed to be as smooth as one may imagine, with the issue of advertising looking like a potential stumbling block. Anyone who has used the social networking site in recent months will have no doubt noticed a significant number of Groupon banners brightening up the place, but would the two firms still want to carry on this relationship if they became director competitors?

Indeed, would other firms get the hump if Buy With Friends started offering discounts for real-world goods and services? After all, why would a mobile phone company want to stump up for a banner ad if a user’s news feed was packed with special offers telling them how to get the same phone for less with one of its rivals?

Facebook could be a serious contender in the social buying market, but unless it goes about things carefully the company could end up losing an awful lot of friends.

This post was written by: William Maclain

William Maclain is a professional blogger, web designer and front end web developer. Follow him on Twitter