I can't see this variation of the model working because usually when you are near a store, the deal or offer is something that needs to be acted on within a few

I can't see this variation of the model working because usually when you are near a store, the deal or offer is something that needs to be acted on within a few minutes Imagine you are going out to get lunch. In the GroupOn model you have already pre-purchased a deal and you can plan ahead. In this Loopt model you can't make an instant decision based on where you are since it involves going back to loopt, etc. etc. This would be more interesting if vendors could list their deals or vouchers on loopt and it would alert you when you are near one (based on location and/or time) Ten years ago there was a trial of a similar system - the name of which I cannot recall. But it involved sending bluetooth alerts to your phone when you were near a store that was running a promotion or deal. I used it once to grab lunch and it worked well (you would give your phone number at the counter, the discount was ~30% IIRC). Vendors would likely be interested in a system where they could specify something along the lines of: send me a thousand customers over the next month between 2-4pm who are within 2 miles of my location and are interested in 30% off a pizza. Do not send me customers who have already redeemed a coupon in the past x months. The problem is that type of system would involve a large upfront investment from loopt in going out and getting the customers onto the system. Loopt have the location users, but not the deals. On the other hand GroupOn have the deals, the vendors and the users but do not have the location system. One of these is easier to build than the other