团购网站最近几个月过得不大顺心。两年前，社交定位网站FourSquare和团购网站Groupon这样的公司还籍籍无名，如今基本上已成了家喻户晓的品牌。随着关注而来的，还有猛烈的批评：Groupon颇具创造新的会计方法大受攻击，一些消费者和小商户也表达了不满，认为团购服务并没有吹嘘的那么好。事实证明，要在各方利益之间取得平衡——给商户省钱，让消费者得实惠，服务提供商也得有可持续的商业模式——是一个相当复杂的问题。然而，规模较小的SCVNGR公司却认为，它已经找到了答案。

    这家位于马萨诸塞州剑桥市的公司正在积极推广其新产品LevelUp，增加用户基础。该产品对团购模式作了一些调整，用户在某个商家消费的越多，所获得的积分和奖励也就越多。其首席执行官赛斯•普瑞巴什称，该产品已经准备好迎来更大发展。经过一个夏季的测试，LevelUp已经在波士顿和费城与约500家商户进行过合作。如今，这家网站进入了纽约市和旧金山，这里是消息灵通、喜爱折扣优惠的用户的圣地。

    这项服务的理念很简单：用户免费注册后，将一张信用卡或借记卡与账户挂钩。随后，用户在合作商家购物时，可以扫描具有特定代码的智能手机。用户首次使用该服务就可以获得优惠，比如说10美元的折扣。这比其他团购网站有什么改进呢？用户如果再次回到同一商家消费的话，获得的积分就会更多，而且在这一过程中可以查阅积分状况。这样做的目的很明确，就是让用户成为回头客。对Groupon、FourSquare用户及相关商家来说，这是个习惯性的大问题。

    这家公司称，这种模式是“逆向优惠”和“动态进展”。它很大程度上是为了让商家满意。普瑞巴什称，LevelUp测试期间，45%的用户在30天内会再次回到特定商家进行消费，并支付全价，这一数字远远高于他对竞争对手的估计。（普瑞巴什声称，Groupon带来的回头客比例只有1-2%。由于Groupon正处于上市前的静默期，因此拒绝就此发表评论。）SCVNGR还表示，更重要的是，这些回头客后来提高了消费额，增幅高达38%，超出赢得奖励所要求的额度。该公司还称，其用户平均给服务员21%的小费，略高于15-18%的普通水平。LevelUp认为，自己已经解决了Groupon合作商家经常抱怨的问题，即用户买了一次折扣商品之后，就永远不再光顾了。

    LevelUp计划第一步在纽约市50个地点开展服务，在其进行试点的城市，目前已有约250个地点配备了Android手机，以接受交易。与Groupon或Foursquare相比，这一规模还小得很，这两家团购巨头都进行了狂飙突进式的扩张。不过，它们也面临着严重的挑战。Groupon创始人兼首席执行官安德鲁•梅森最近写给员工的一份备忘录遭到泄秘。他在文件中称，公司的巨额营销开支是为了吸引用户，然后“将这些注册用户转变为顾客，并确保顾客不断从我们这里购物。”可是，这一点说起来容易做起来难。不少报道指出，Groupon的1.15亿注册用户中，许多人只是不断追逐一个又一个新的优惠，根本没有什么忠诚度可言。

    另一方面，FourSquare面临的问题在于：本地广告主和用户热情不再。数据显示基于“签到”的服务总体上来说受欢迎度已经下降。根据投资公司Blair & Co.的一份报告，去年5月至11月期间，在由FourSquare和Gowalla领导的这一市场，每天使用所谓基于地理位置社交服务的用户下降了一半。这种趋势迫使Gowalla转向其他业务，而FourSquare也深受威胁。后者的产品总监亚历克斯•雷诺特承认，该公司正在寻找新的互动形式，尝试超越实体店内签到的模式，进而提供照片、评论和“探索”（向用户建议可去的地点）功能。

    普瑞巴什和他的SCVNGR/LevelUp联合团队认为，他们已经找到了留住用户的解决方案。SCVNGR是FourSquare的竞争对手，它与可口可乐、青少年服饰品牌Forever 21和游戏零售商Gamestop等都有合作关系。它提供的一些社交机制可以让用户通过挑战或其他游戏元素来获得奖励。比如说在唐恩都乐（Dunkin' Donuts）营销活动期间，奖励就包括该店的一杯免费咖啡。普瑞巴什认为，LevelUp是SCVNGR在交易领域的天然姐妹项目。

    LevelUp的开局并不顺利。普瑞巴什承认，公司经历了二次发布的过程才弄清楚了症结。该服务最初的运作方式与Groupon的折扣模式颇为相似。但是商家并不喜欢，他们认为不断提供折扣会影响其品牌形象。“它给人们造成一种印象——合作品牌似乎正在走下坡路，”普瑞巴什说。“我们推出原版服务后，这种效应显而易见。正因为此，我们又创造了逆向优惠概念。”这种概念的基础是顾客通过参与获得奖励和积分，而不是大打折扣，避免了折扣模式带来的问题。

    然而，有些人并不买账。游戏平台服务商BunchBall的创始人拉贾特•帕哈里亚的批评相当直率。“我认为修改之后再重新上线这回事说明SCVNGR是个失败的公司，”帕哈里亚称，“我不明白它们为何要贸然进入团购领域。”显然，LevelUp并不认同这种观点。SCVNGR自称其9月份营收超过了去年前6个月的总和如果该公司能继续保持LevelUp用户每周消费两次的习惯，普瑞巴什或许是正确的。他放言：“给我们6到9个月，届时请见识一下我们两项服务相互促进的效果。”

    译者：小宇

    Daily deals firms have had a rough few months. Barely known two years ago, companies like FourSquare and Groupon are now practically household names. With the attention has come a barrage of criticism: Groupon's creative accounting came under fire amid a backlash from some consumers and small businesses that claim the services aren't all they're cracked up to be. Indeed, getting the right mix -- savings for merchant, rewards for consumer, and a sustainable business model for providers – has proved complicated. Smaller rival SCVNGR thinks it's found the answer.

    The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company is expanding access to its new product LevelUp, a twist on the daily deals scheme that offers credits and rewards the more users spend at a given merchant. CEO Seth Priebatsch says the product is ready for prime time. Today, after a summer testing phase with some 500 merchants in Boston and Philadelphia, LevelUp hits New York City and San Francisco –meccas of connected, deal-savvy users.

    The concept is simple: users sign up for free, linking a credit or debit card to their account. Then, when shopping at participating merchants, they can scan a smart phone with a unique code. Users get credit the first time they use it, say a $10 discount toward their purchase. The improvement over other daily deals? Going back to the same store repeatedly earns users' even more credits, displaying progress along the way. The incentive is clear, to keep users coming back -- a habitual problem that has had Groupon and FourSquare users and merchant crying foul.

    The company calls this its "inverted deal" and progression dynamic. It's largely aimed at keeping merchants happy. Priebatch says that, during LevelUp's pilot program, 45% of customers returned to a given merchant within 30 days to pay for something full price, higher than his estimates for rival services (Priebatch claims Groupon, which is in its quiet period and declined to comment, only brings back 1% to 2%). What's more, the company claims that users increase their spend by 38% on the transactions that put them over the top for earning a reward. The company also boasts that its average consumer tips waiters 21%, slightly above the normal range of about 15-18%. LevelUp thinks it's solved the common complaint of Groupon merchants that users buy one discounted product and walk away for good.

    LevelUp is set to hit 50 locations in New York initially; there are about 250 locations equipped with the Android phones to accept purchases in its pilot cities right now. That's still a small foray when compared to the scale of Groupon or Foursquare, both of which have aggressively expanded. But, those firms face serious challenges. Andrew Mason, Groupon's founder and CEO, wrote employees in a recently leaked memo that its heavy marketing expenses were to gain users, then "convert these subscribers into customers and to make sure our customers keep buying from us." That, however, is easier said than done, as reports now suggest many of Groupon's 115 million subscribers follow deal to deal, without building any merchant loyalty.

    FourSquare, on the other hand, faces difficulties with local advertisers and numbers that suggest check-in based services have lost overall popularity. From May to November last year, when Foursquare and Gowalla led the market, the number of people using a so-called geosocial service on a daily basis dropped in half, according to a William Blair & Co. Report. That drop drove Gowalla into a different business and threatens Foursquare. Tatcompany's product chief, Alex Rainert, admitted the company is looking to new forms of engagement in an attempt to go beyond the physical in-store check-in to offer photos, comments, and "Explore" to suggest locations to its users.

    Priebatsch and his joint SCVNGR/LevelUp team think they've already found the solution to engaging users. SCVNGR, a FourSquare rival that works with brands such as Coke (KO), Forever 21 and Gamestop (GME), offers mechanics in the social space, through challenges and other game elements that can unlock rewards such as a free coffee in a Dunkin' Donuts (DNKN) campaign. Priebatsch sees LevelUp as its natural sister project in the transactional space.

    LevelUp had a rough start. Priebatsch admits the company needed a relaunch to figure it out. The product's first iteration operated closer to the Groupon discount model. Merchants didn't like the effect constant discounting had on their brand. "It created the perception that the brand might be flagging," Priebatsch says. "Once we launched it, that became apparent. That's why we created the inverted deal concept." This concept, based on participation incentives and credit, not a discount, could avoid the discounting issue.

    Some aren't buying it. RajatPaharia, founder of game mechanics platform provider BunchBall, is vocal. "[A new launch] indicates to me that SCVNGR is just a flop," Paharia says. "Jumping into that daily deal space, I don't get it." Clearly, LevelUp disagrees. If the company, which says SCVNGR revenue was greater for September than the first six months of last year combined, can keep LevelUp users at their twice a week clip, Priebatsch might be right. "Give us six to nine months, and just see how the two interplay," he dares.