Social network giant Facebook announced that it will shut down its daily online deals product (called Facebook Deals), reports Reuters.
The company launched Facebook Deals about four months ago in five major U.S. cities. The product, which offered online discounts and deals from local and national businesses to its large user-base, was intended as a competitor to group-buying services like Groupon and LivingSocial.
“After testing Deals for four months, we’ve decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks,” a Facebook spokesperson told Reuters. “We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses… We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.”
Facebook was not immediately available for comment.
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*Update: Facebook responded to us with a similar statement about its daily deals product:
After testing Deals for four months, we’ve decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks. We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses. We remain committed to building products to help local businesses connect with people, like Ads, Pages, Sponsored Stories, and Check-in Deals. We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.
