So what kind of cut does Facebook take from its Deals partners? Try none. Zip. Zilch. Nada. A doughnut hole big enough to shove a “Like” thumb through. Then why, uh, do it?
According to AllFacebook, Zuck and crew aren’t just running Deals out of the goodness of their hearts. More important than a slice of a $US50 dinner tab is getting credit cards on file:
Facebook’s approach appears to be solely focused on expanding the reach of credits. In the short term it’s a win-win for the social network and its partners. These businesses get a dramatic increase in distribution of their deals and Facebook can get more users to put their credit cards on file with the company.
As Facebook has very long-term ambitions with credits, this sort of deal makes a whole lot of sense. Should the new deals product become wildly successful, Facebook can simply take a cut of each deal sold since they own the currency.
Short term sacrifice for a potentially long-term gain; why be Groupon when you could be Amazon? [AllFacebook]