Did Livingsocial.com Surpass Groupon.com Using Malware Installs To Boost Traffic?
 

Really interesting article here asking if Livingsocial utilized adware/malware installers to surpass Groupon in traffic? It would not surprise me in the slightest considering how hot this vertical is in mainstream and how everyone is throwing money around like the old days.

http://industrypace.com/frontpage/20...le-adware.html

Sounds like mainstream is catching up to our Industries 10 year old issue.

LOL no shit huh, this story seems to ring a bell for some reason :1orglaugh

The only legit reason Living Social having a huge bump was because it did a $10 for $20 Amazon deal. Kicker is, this wasn't a partnership done by Amazon; Living Social bought those Amazon $$.

"Typically, retailers sell the coupons directly to consumers for the discounted price, and LivingSocial takes a cut, generally 30 percent. But for this deal, LivingSocial bought the gift cards from Amazon and is selling them itself," the Times wrote."

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2376080,00.asp

If you check the article a bit further down you will see that the blogger is suggesting that these guys are utilizing adware installations and popping over Groupon whenever an infected computer visits it (hence all the incoming groupon traffic in their referrers).

It is quite mesmerizing the amount of money being thrown at these daily deals sites now. Groupon just got a further 950MM in financing earlier this month

How much of that money is groupon spending on google ads? They're all over some mainstream sites we do.

the article isn;t making much sense though.

That being said, I am mainly concerned about one thing that I’m sure you noticed. 7% of all traffic coming to LivingSocial.com is from Groupon. Is Groupon really sending traffic to competition? Highly unlikely, and not really happening (I checked with Groupon and looked myself.) Instead there is something going on here that I’m sure Groupon would love to take note legally and otherwise — the use of adware.

The clickstream chart is really not saying a whole lot. A good amount is perhaps coming from people on Groupon going to LS to and check both sides for deals so showing us as precending?

PS I wouldnt be surprised if they (or affiliates) used adware though lol

I think alot of that stuff is on a CPA Mike...

I think in the end you have to just remember it's one person's opinion... It could be quite the opposite however if it is true it's pretty interesting ;-)