The first voucher (group buy) site appeared on OzBargain around the beginning of January 2010 in the form of Ouffer. One by one, the market became saturated by these voucher sites. So has the bubble burst and  are these sites days numbered?

Just by looking at the amount of voucher sites, one could make the argument that we’ve hit peak and are slowly consolidating to a few big players. Take a look at the wiki page listing group buy sites. Looking at the history of the page, at one point there were 23 sites serving both Melbourne and Sydney. It currently list 16 active site for Sydney and 17 for Melbourne.  That’s a drop of 28% from it’s peak.

Let’s take a look at the amount of posts over time by these sites.

 Amount of posts (Rep posts not included. User posts only.)

Ouffer – First voucher site in Australia. Big start but has now fizzles to no recent deals in June 2012.

Monthly Average: 2.67

Most popular month: Sept 2010

Scoopon – Strong start in April 2010 and consistently high monthly posting average until April 2011. April 2011-April 2012 lull in posts but then a pickup from April 2012 to June 2012.

Monthly Average: 7.48

Most popular month: Feb 2011

Groupon – Strong start but upward trend ending with June 2012 as biggest month.

Monthly Average: 4.41

Most popular month: June 2012

Livingsocial – Strong start but very small monthly posting average.

Monthly Average: 2.68

Most popular month: August 2011

Cudo – Strong start but very small monthly posting average.

Monthly Average: 2.91

Most popular month: September 2010

Quantity of posts is only one metric to measure popularity of these deals. Let’s take a look at the quality of the posts (e.g vote counts).

Average votes per month (Rep posts not included. User posts only.)

Ouffer – A few blips.

Monthly Average: 6.84

Most popular month: May 2012   Most popular deal: Free Pieface Pie (+137)

Scoopon -Starts big, levels out until April 2011. April-July 2011 bad. July 2011-March 2012 average. March 2012 – June 2012 shows very high numbers.

Monthly Average: 11.45

Most popular month: April 2010   Most popular deal: $2  Hungry Jacks Whopper & Fries (+566)

Groupon – Steady numbers. Pulling big numbers between February to June 2012.

Monthly Average: 11.93

Most popular month: June 2012   Most popular deal: $6 for a $10 Woolworths Caltex Petrol Card (+189)

Livingsocial – Steady average but recent spikes in May 2012.

Monthly Average: 7.89

Most popular month: May 2012   Most popular deal: $2 Pizza Hut Pizza (+75)

Cudo – Some spikes but nothing significant.

Monthly Average: 8.04

Most popular month: May 2011   Most popular deal: 50% off Krispy Kremes (+65)

Conclusions

• The amount of voucher sites are slowly dwindling in numbers.
•  Scoopon, Groupon and Livingsocial deals are getting increasingly popular with their highest average monthly numbers coming in 2012.
• Cheap junk food tops the most popular deals by these group buy companies.

_{1.  This isn’t a definite list and it’s possible that some companies are not listed on the wiki page.}

_{2. This isn’t a scientific analysis.}

_{3. Jumponit and Livingsocial were at times offering the same deals. At other times, they had different deals. The figures are murky at best.}

_{4.  As time progresses, increased membership at OzBargain means higher average vote counts for all deals.}