Leading social shopping site now live in 25 additional markets across Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Mexico
Washington D.C., January 13, 2011 – One of the leading social commerce sites LivingSocial (http://www.livingsocial.com) today announced it has acquired a majority stake in LetsBonus, S.L. (http://www.LetsBonus.com/), one of the pioneer social shopping sites in Europe. The partnership bolsters LivingSocial’s rapid international expansion, making it now live in ten countries with the addition of LetsBonus’ Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Mexico presences.
LivingSocial now has more than 16 million subscribers, is live in more than 170 markets, and is projected to book in excess of $500 million in revenue in 2011.
“The addition of LetsBonus to the LivingSocial team is a great opportunity to expand into Latin America and continue our European growth,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial. “Not only is LivingSocial available in ten countries, but with this acquisition we’ve gone multilingual, offering deals in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. We’re thrilled to expand our footprint with a company that believes in building the same great merchant and consumer relationships that LivingSocial has always upheld.”
Launched in September 2009 in Barcelona, LetsBonus helped to pioneer the collective buying movement in Europe and is the current leader in the Spanish market. The company offers daily deals with discounts of up to 70% on fun, exclusive activities including gourmet dinners, luxury spas and romantic escapes. LetsBonus has a strong management and sales team of more than 200 employees, including local city experts in each market where the company’s daily deals programme is live, and offices in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Rome, Milan, Lisbon, Buenos Aires and Mexico. LetsBonus’ “Planes de Viaje” section, which offers pre-packaged travel deals to users, also naturally supports LivingSocial Escapes’ international expansion.
“LivingSocial is the perfect fit for LetsBonus as we share the same goal of offering unique, top notch deals for subscribers,” said Miguel Vicente, Founder and CEO of LetsBonus. “With LivingSocial’s support, we look forward to growing LetsBonus even faster and stronger throughout Europe and in South America.”
As the online source to find amazing experiences at an unbeatable value, LivingSocial lets anyone experience the hottest restaurants, shops, activities and services in their area. The company has dedicated area experts on the ground in every location working directly with business owners, constantly researching the best in local adventures to bring a savings of at least 50% for consumers. In addition to the new European and South American markets, LivingSocial is live in the United States, Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia.
The LetsBonus partnership continues LivingSocial’s drumbeat of expansion, product development and innovation. In 2010, LivingSocial acquired adventure company Urban Escapes, and launched three new verticals including LivingSocial Escapes, a travel site that offers unbeatable savings on curated adventures, LivingSocial Family Edition and Campus Deals. In addition, the company has launched one market per day on average and has expanded its reach in Australia with a controlling stake in Jump On It. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
For a full list of markets where LivingSocial is live or to sign up your location, go to http://www.livingsocial.com.
