Following success on iPhone, MyVoucherCodes has launched its voucher app on Android, letting consumers locate local discounts via GPS. It’s the first of its kind on Google’s mobile OS, says the company, a claim that appears to fall slightly short.
A quick search of the Android market reveals a number of GPS-powered voucher apps, including vouchAR, a nifty Augmented Reality-powered voucher finder that aggregates offers from a range of sites. While MyVoucherCodes’ competitor VoucherClouds is said to have an Android offering on its way.
That’s perhaps not surprising – as we noted when MyVoucherCodes first unveiled its ‘hyper-local’ strategy, the local discount voucher space is getting pretty crowded.
Vouchercloud from Invitation Digital, which we profiled in February of last year, is probably MyVoucherCodes’ closest competitor. Alongside its iPhone app, the company is also targeting the lower end of the market with an SMS-powered option.
And of course, there’s also competition from the host of deal-a-day Groupon clones, of which MyVoucherCodes founder Mark Pearson launched one of his own, which has since been deadpooled absorbed into the MyVoucherCodes brand – and there’s Groupon itself.
In fact, with GPS-enabled smartphones becoming ubiquitous, how long before local discount vouchers become a commodity whereby punters expect a free (or cut price) lunch? That’s a question I’ve asked before. This would somewhat defeat the competitive advantage of this type of discounting and put customer loyalty squarely in the hands of discount voucher aggregators such as MyVoucherCodes. Tech-savvy customers, after all, are a fickle bunch.