Facebook offers special 'Deals' coupons to users

Facebook is offering users in five US cities coupons for everything from wine tastings to concert tickets, turning up the competitive heat in an increasingly crowded market.

The special Deals coupons, which Facebook users can purchase directly on its service, offer discounted prices or access to limited-availability goods. Facebook will take a cut of each transaction, though the company declined to say how much.

With the new service, Facebook becomes the latest Internet heavyweight to jump into the daily deals market pioneered by Groupon a few years ago. Last week, Google Inc began marketing a new daily deals service dubbed Offers to users in Portland, Oregon, with plans to expand to San Francisco and New York, while Amazon.com invested $175 million in LivingSocial in December.

“Although the market has seen huge growth and there are big players already there, it’s not something that’s locked down,” said Ray Valdes, an Internet analyst at research firm Gartner.