While group buying was starting to show signs of a decline and change in the US and South Africa, along comes Google and shakes things up. But not in our country, yet. Google has bought DailyDeal.de, a European (mainly German based) daily deals website. The company offers visitors daily deals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The DailyDeal team is literally less than two years old, having started in December 2009. Although Google hasn’t announced the acquisition yet, it is doubtful this is just a hoax. The two entrepreneurs who started it, a pair of brothers, will stay on board for an undisclosed amount of time.

DailyDeal recently raised over $10 million from VC firms and private investors, and the company made an acquisition of its own last year, snapping up rival Reduti.

DailyDeal.de wrote:

When DailyDeal was founded in Berlin back in December 2009, there was just two of us. Since then, we have seen tremendous growth, as people throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland have used DailyDeal to find local deals on their favorite restaurants, travel destinations, entertainment venues and retail outlets.
Our team has grown too, and with it, our vision for DailyDeal. We see great opportunity to better connect businesses with consumers on a much larger scale, and we have found a team that shares our vision.
That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve been acquired by Google! What began as a two-person startup less than two years ago has transformed into a trusted platform to connect businesses with consumers. By combining our expertise with the Offers team at Google, we hope to expand our efforts to provide even greater deals to consumers.
The DailyDeal team

This gives great insight into the South African market – do you think Google will cast its eyes to Africa’s group buying industry in the near future?