Groupon Chiang Mai

[Konini]

OK, so it's never going to happen, but even my small hometown in England has it's own Deal of the Day website. I think there are enough expats in Chiang Mai to make this viable. Not putting my hand up, but I think it might be worthwhile someone with an entrepreneurial spirit looking into it. I have no idea how much work it would involve - probably a lot to begin with, selling the idea to a few local businesses - and if it does work, there will be tangible results which would prove to others that it would work. I really think it could work if someone is motivated enough to make it happen.

[realthaideal]

Have you heard of Ensogo ? It's already happened as far as I know. I think I see their ads up on the Book of Faces all the time.

[Konini]

Have you heard of Ensogo ? It's already happened as far as I know. I think I see their ads up on the Book of Faces all the time.

Thanks for that, although there doesn't seem to be anything specific to CM - Groupon Thailand is pretty good - I've bought something from them, but the only city they cover for specific eating/services is Bangkok so far. I still think if anyone has that entrepreneurial spirit could make a bit of money. And hopefully get some good deals for us

[Mestizo]

Against my better judgement, I am going to go ahead and respond to this post....

Your assumptions are incorrect. There are not even enough active expats in Bangkok to support group buying. This is evident by Ensogo switching to Thai language only for all daily deals earlier this year. The percentage of expat users that were actually purchasing deals was so extremely miniscule that they deemed it not even worth catering to that market anymore.

Yes, I know that Groupon Thailand still offers deals in English. This is because given their tiny portion of the market share, I assume it may still be feasible/ worthwhile.

According to this article, (http://www.coconutsbangkok.com/features/ensogo-aims-to-remain-dominant-in-2012/) Ensogo owned 89% of the Thailand market share in early 2012. It's grown since then, but that means that Groupon, Sanook.com and a few others are all left fighting over the less than 10% remaining of the market share. This also does not include the handful of other Thai companies that have tried and gone out of business in the past couple years.

To understand some of the further challenges in this space, Google for some of the interviews that the founders of Ensogo have provide over the last couple of years. There is a lot, lot more to it than you think.

**Disclaimer, a couple of my best friends founded one of the largest group buying sites in the world. I am also heavily involved in this space throughout major portions of Asia and Australia (and to some degree Europe) and follow the market pretty closely.

-Mestizo

[ricklev]

I bought quite a lot of Ensogo coupons before they switched to all Thai. Too bad! They are still the only one that regularly offers good restaurants and good vouchers. Groupon seems to often offer set menus that include a glass of wine or some other weirdness to inflate the presumed value of the deal. I can almost hear the salesperson selling the idea to the restaurant......

[Rancid]

Mestizo, why bother with the disclaimer on a Thai forum, if involved as you say just enjoy it.

[beb]

A year or so ago there were all kinds of horror stories popping up about establishments being hammered by deals they made with Groupon that backfired and caused them to lose money. Did these kinds of things sort themselves out? I quit the site because in the end, it seemed that to participate I had to give yet one more company all my info and I'm just tired of that. Plus the daily mails were annoying.

I tried to check out Ensogo after seeing it mentioned here but a window pops up that I think is a sign up requirement before you enter. Since it is all in Thai, I never got to the actual site.

While living in Korea I actually used a groupon-like site a few times but I think the deals there were more oriented towards clearing inventory or had clear limited availability so they seemed to be better designed for the companies that signed up.

So has the online coupon market matured now?

[konjianghai]

A year or so ago there were all kinds of horror stories popping up about establishments being hammered by deals they made with Groupon that backfired and caused them to lose money. Did these kinds of things sort themselves out? I quit the site because in the end, it seemed that to participate I had to give yet one more company all my info and I'm just tired of that. Plus the daily mails were annoying.

I tried to check out Ensogo after seeing it mentioned here but a window pops up that I think is a sign up requirement before you enter. Since it is all in Thai, I never got to the actual site.

While living in Korea I actually used a groupon-like site a few times but I think the deals there were more oriented towards clearing inventory or had clear limited availability so they seemed to be better designed for the companies that signed up.

So has the online coupon market matured now?

http://www.ensogo.com/en/chiangmai/ just click on i'm already a member then the pop up will be gone. You can view the page, choose english and click at Chiang Mai at your left menu bar.

[LawrenceChee]

Ensogo works great and there are some great deals there at times...if you cant understand the Thai...find a friend..worth the savings !

[beb]

A year or so ago there were all kinds of horror stories popping up about establishments being hammered by deals they made with Groupon that backfired and caused them to lose money. Did these kinds of things sort themselves out? I quit the site because in the end, it seemed that to participate I had to give yet one more company all my info and I'm just tired of that. Plus the daily mails were annoying.

I tried to check out Ensogo after seeing it mentioned here but a window pops up that I think is a sign up requirement before you enter. Since it is all in Thai, I never got to the actual site.

While living in Korea I actually used a groupon-like site a few times but I think the deals there were more oriented towards clearing inventory or had clear limited availability so they seemed to be better designed for the companies that signed up.

So has the online coupon market matured now?

http://www.ensogo.com/en/chiangmai/ just click on i'm already a member then the pop up will be gone. You can view the page, choose english and click at Chiang Mai at your left menu bar.

Thanks for that. It appears the English that shows up for me is from google translate that auto starts.

BTW, I noticed while loading that it says "Ensogo is now LivingSocial." It does not appear in the LivingSocial main page so I think it is going through a transition. That might explain a lack of English for now.

[Mestizo]

BTW, I noticed while loading that it says "Ensogo is now LivingSocial." It does not appear in the LivingSocial main page so I think it is going through a transition. That might explain a lack of English for now.

Ensogo has been part of LivingSocial for more than a year already:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/27/livingsocial-expands-daily-deals-empire-buys-ensogo-gonabit-and-dealkeren/

And they are listed on the main corporate LivingSocial website.

http://corporate.livingsocial.com/ourcompany

Ensogo provided English translations of all daily deals from inception until April 20th of this year:

I recall a notice posted on their website for at least a month before this, along with some explanations in the "Discussion" portion of their website.

-Mestizo

[eyecatcher]

As a fledgling business, the Ensogo/Groupon are a great way to get people out there to know about you, I advertised with them a year ago. Ensogo is the one though, much higher standard and they were particular who advertised, it would need to be middle/upper market establishments...certainly no riff raff, and they would come to inspect premises.

But, as one poster hinted, it was impossible to make money;...firstly you have to show that someone is making at least 51% saving on the normal price....then Ensogo took a comission of 18% of that price.

So you will see adverts that are not actually in someones menu most of the time, they have created a "product" specifically for Ensogo customers...and as such they have to inflate the "original" price in order to reduce it by 51%.

I remember Burger king last year selling 5000 cholestorol sandwiches for 99bt claiming they were worth 199bt...not bad though if you are lucky to sell that many.

I wasnt happy about, trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes, it was a con to me, but we accepted what we could get just to get our name out there.

many many thais are living off these cheap coupons...but like most people they never return when the price is regular again.

My advice, try to advertaie with them in low season, a sale of 100 tickets gives a steady flow of customers over the 3 month validity, but if you are on a potential loss; then you can alway hope NOT to get the customers, and still get paid. (and payment incidently is at the end of the customer validity period)

Just my 2 penneth

[beb]

As a fledgling business, the Ensogo/Groupon are a great way to get people out there to know about you, I advertised with them a year ago. Ensogo is the one though, much higher standard and they were particular who advertised, it would need to be middle/upper market establishments...certainly no riff raff, and they would come to inspect premises.

But, as one poster hinted, it was impossible to make money;...firstly you have to show that someone is making at least 51% saving on the normal price....then Ensogo took a comission of 18% of that price.

So you will see adverts that are not actually in someones menu most of the time, they have created a "product" specifically for Ensogo customers...and as such they have to inflate the "original" price in order to reduce it by 51%.

I remember Burger king last year selling 5000 cholestorol sandwiches for 99bt claiming they were worth 199bt...not bad though if you are lucky to sell that many.

I wasnt happy about, trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes, it was a con to me, but we accepted what we could get just to get our name out there.

many many thais are living off these cheap coupons...but like most people they never return when the price is regular again.

My advice, try to advertaie with them in low season, a sale of 100 tickets gives a steady flow of customers over the 3 month validity, but if you are on a potential loss; then you can alway hope NOT to get the customers, and still get paid. (and payment incidently is at the end of the customer validity period)

Just my 2 penneth

Yeah, as I remember it, stores found themselves selling at a loss to people who would come in to use the discount and never return. They didn't see any promotional gains in the end. Some were really upside down after a wave of people coming in for the special and nothing but, Groupon taking its cut and them basically left holding the bag.

[barefoot1988]

hey, thanks for the nice website. it seems pretty good, i had just bought off a 500gb buffalo hdd for just 2000 baht and a electric shaver for 350 just for fun sake. seems pretty good