Living Social's site slowed down nationally in rush to $1 D.C. lunch deals

Living Social earlier chose Washington, D.C. as the test arena for its "Instant Deals" service, and today's $1 lunch deal is bringing the site to its knees. The site either loads slowly, or not at all, and nationally, not just for D.C. residents, as well.

Living Social announced the Instant Deals program in early March. Normally, Living Social's daily deals are live for 24 hours, or until it runs out. Instant Deals are live only for a short period of time, say lunchtime.

Users can use the site, but they can also click on Instant Deals in the Living Social mobile app, where they will receive information about Instant Deals within half a mile of their current location, as determined by their smartphone.

Current deals are $1 for $10 at Crepe Amour, $1 for $15 at M Street Bar and Grill, $1 for $20 at Tuscana West. 100 restaurants are reportedly participating in the $1 lunch deal.

Living Social has admitted the issues with its site on its Twitter stream, and has also admitted they are working on it. The site seems to come up occasionally, but then may go down randomly.  Additionally, the site Tweeted that confirmations are running about a hour behind, which could cause issues, but customers can use their names to get their deals.Living Social and Groupon are in a fierce fight over the deal-of-the-day market. Earlier, the two dueled over Super Bowl (and pre-Super Bowl) ads, although Groupon's ad fell flat after controversy arose over the "humor" embedded in the ads.

Living Social is based in Washington, D.C., which clearly explains its Instant Deals test market choice.   The site has  garnered a total of $232 million in funding, with most if it,  $175 million, coming from Amazon.com.

At the same time, Groupon earlier turned down an acquisiton offer by Google that was worth billions, although if rumors are correct that Google offer severely undervalued Groupon.  Google offered $6 billion for the company, but not only has Groupon recently raised $950 million in Series D funds, it is rumored to be seeking an IPO valuded at as much as $25 billion.

Living Social, meanwhile, recently claimed it is rapidly gaining on Groupon, and that it will surpass Groupon by January 2012.

Source : http://www.examiner.com By Michael Santo

Posted in: internet,living social